Troubling Engagement
by Faytful
Summary: The story mainly deals with Athrun as the protagonist and Kira as the supporting role. ORB, PLANTS, ZAFT and the Earth Alliance are now at peace. That peace lead Athrun to marry Cagalli... at least he planned to not unlike all war broke loose...
1. Chapter 1: The Beauty of the Sunset

**Chapter 1:****The Beauty of the Sunset**

As the breeze strikes down the fertile grass on the fields, Cagali Yula Athla the princess of ORB watches the grass moving along with the breeze from her mansion, by her window. "How I wished to be with him already…" the blonde said silently as she placed her hand on the window and the other on her chest. "…it seems that it's been so long since he left with Kira…" She gave a sigh… "Athrun… I miss you… already…"

"Maybe I should go to Lacus' place?" she gave a thought… and without any delay she got her phone and called at Lacus' place.

"Hello? Lacus?"

"Oh, Cagali… how unsuspecting…" the songstress said,

"Well, can I stay there for awhile?"

"Of course you can… your welcome here anytime."

"I'll be one my way then…"

"Cagali…"

"Are you okay? Something's bothering you isn't it?" Lacus said in suspecting manner…

"I'll explain it, when I get there."

"Okay then Cagali… it's still early morning, you should get some breakfast."

"Don't worry… I will…"

XxXxXxXxX

"Kira…" the blue haired man said…

"Yea, what is it Athrun?" Kira replied, "I've been thinking… that…" Athrun stopped…

"Thinking of what?" Kira said…

"Well… thinking of marrying your sister…""Seriously?!" Kira said in surprise,

Before Athrun could answer Kira's question, Kira's phone rang and he quickly answered his phone…

"Hello, Kira speaking…"

"Kira, this is Lacus…"

"Well, what is it Lacus?"

"I think we've got a problem…"

"What happened?" Kira answered straightly…

"It's Cagali… she called up, and she seemed to be… sad…"

"What?!" Kira shouted out loudly on the phone,

"Kira, take it easy… she's fine… just depressed…" Lacus said, trying to calm Kira down…

"How can you say that she's fine when she's feeling bad?!"

"Kira, take it easy… I'll take care of everything here. Just don't overdo it Kira…"

Soon after, Kira closed his phone and turned his head around to Athrun… "So, what happened?" Athrun asked… Kira remained silent... then sighed… "It's Cagali…" he said intensely silent… Kira's very protective of Cagali over the years though… truly; he is such a good brother, even if he's the younger twin… It doesn't matter to Kira… all he cares is his twin to be happy and safe. He found it something inside of him that only his heart can explain his deep and sincere feelings towards his sister.

"So..?" Athrun said… "What happened?"

"Lacus said that she's not feeling well…" Kira replied, "…but I'm not sure if she'll be okay."

"Cagali…" Athrun muttered…

"I hope she'll be fine…" Athrun said in a worried tone…

"I hope so too, but I'm confident that Lacus can take care of her."

"I guess so…" Athrun said in his thoughts,

"You do know that she's so childish despite of her bossy attitude…" Kira said, "…but she does have a good side. Her will over the improvement of ORB is really strong as well as her will to work. Sometimes, I get worried that she's not taking herself properly already…"

"So, you did notice it too Kira…" Athrun said in his thoughts… "How did he know that Cagali's pushing herself? I never said a word about it…"

"Is she?" Kira asked,

"W-What?" Athrun snapped out of his thoughts, "Sorry, what was it again Kira..?"

"Is she overdoing with her work?" Kira…

"No… she's not…why?"

"Nothing in particular though…" Kira said…

XxXxXxXxX

"Cagali… you must understand… Athrun and I will be in a mission!"

"But why the two of you, there are many other men to fight, but why the two of you?" Cagali answered back,

"We were the pilots of the Freedom and the Justice… and there's no other person that can wield the true power of those two Gundam, except the two of us." Athrun said…

"But at what cost?! You two will be away from us…""Only for awhile Cagali… We'll come back Cagali…" Athrun said… "I promise…"

Cagali's eyes were teary; her arms encircled all over her and lowered her head as tears were starting to fall… "Why..?" she said as tears fell down the floor… "Why can't you stay and be at peace?" she shouted… "Cagali…" Athrun walked towards her and Cagali instantly shove herself to Athrun's broad chest as she continued to cry. "Cagali…" Athrun repeated… "…please understand us, we really have to go. I'll explain everything later on… but as for mow, we must go." Cagali clutched Athrun's shirt and her tears were getting even worse, "Why..? Why can't you understand my situation?"

Seeing Cagali crying, Kira felt weak… his heart was in agony that he wanted to shout it out all too well. Sure, he was worried, but Cagali's the only sister that he has… and their relationship was something different; a bond that they both share very dear, but as Kira saw her Cagali in such pain, he was just powerless to do anything at all… "Cagali…" Athrun said faintly as he hugged the crying blonde… "It's ok…" he said… "…everything will be fine…" Athrun looked at Kira sitting down at the couch… Kira nodded his head at Athrun… which he was sure that Kira meant that they had to prepare for their trip. But Athrun couldn't move from his position… Cagali was still crying… and she won't let go off the firm grip. "Man… now I'm really stuck…" Athrun said in his thoughts.

After five minutes, Cagali still didn't stop crying… and Kira's phone rang… Athrun turned his head around Kira with a very anxious look on his eyes… "I hope it's not THEM calling us again…" Athrun said in his thoughts…

"Hello…" Kira said on the phone…

"Kira, good news… you don't have to go to that trip anymore!"

"Are you serious Lacus?!" Kira asked hastily…

"Yes… the ministry called and that program or something is cancelled…"

"Thank god…" Kira said in Relief… "Wait, I gotta tell Cagali…"

"I have to go now… see you there at home honey…"

"Bye…"

Kira stood up from the couch and approached Cagali… Athrun was relieved that it wasn't THEM… but he still was missing out… he had that puzzled look at Kira… "Cagali… I've got great news…" Kira said as he placed her hand on Cagali's soft blonde hair… almost immediately, Cagali looked at Kira with her red teary eyes still had those teardrops flowing down her cheeks… "…stop crying Cagali…" Kira said… "…we're staying…"

"What?" Athrun said, "Why?"

"Lacus called up and it seems that THEY cancelled the program."

"So… you're staying?" Cagali asked as she clearing her eyes from the tears…

"Yes…" Kira said…

Athrun gave a deep sigh… he was relieved that at least he could be with Cagali… or else Cagali won't be able to take care of her properly… he knows it all too well, Cagali's concentrating on her paperwork too much, she tends to skip dinner and lack of sleep. She's very devoted for ORB… but sometimes he just can't help but feel frustrated that she's sacrificing her state of health… As her boyfriend, he should do something… but she's just too damn frustrated. Cagali is really an affectionate girl despite of her boyish attitude. It can't be help, and thinking about it all, her first encounter with Athrun was very… displeasing, as Athrun thought that Cagali was actually a girl. Instead, that's when the relationship all started that had them destined to be together… until now.

XxXxXxXxX

Back with Kira and Athrun in their room…

"Kira, don't you think that's very ironic?" Athrun said with a chuckle"

"What do you mean Athrun?" Kira said with a baffled look,

"They cancelled our little trip going here… but here we are…"

"Well, true… but at least time's only gonna be some exhibition rather than test runs"

"Yea… we just have to show of the Freedom and the Justice in some city that I forgot…"

"Weren't you listening to the briefing?!

"No… I… had something in mind…" Kira said with a smile,

"It's Cagali right?"

Kira nodded,

"I'm worried about her too…" Athrun said, "…but don't let it bother you. You don't want you mobile suit hitting a skyscraper or something even worse…"

Kira nodded… as he was sitting on his bed… "At least we got this free hotel treatment…" he smiled… "That's right… but I'd rather stay with Cagali…" Athrun replied… "But how the hell did we end up in this mess?"

It was inevitable… Kira was sure that he was going to use his mobile suit sooner or later, despite that he's already a married man. Kira married Lacus and now lives in the orphanage that Lacus owns. As for Cagali, as the princess of ORB, it's her responsibility to take care the peace being and the progress of the nation… she now lives in the mansion of ORB along with her bodyguard Athrun… that didn't end there, Athrun was more than her bodyguard… he was her boyfriend…

"Well, what's your plan with Cagali, Athrun?" Kira asked,

Athrun watched the beautiful sunset, it was the same sublimed sunset that he and Cagali watched... he remembered the paralyzing kiss that Cagali gave him… the first time that he ever felt his mind being cleared of everything except Cagali, and he felt his neck all heating up as the hot kiss continued. "Athrun… What's your plan?" Kira repeated… but then again, Athrun just stared blankly at the sunset… and… "ATHRUN!" Kira shouted… Athrun instantly turned around at Kira, "Y-Yeah?" he said nervously… "Were you paying attention?" Kira said straightly, Athrun just smiled and said… "…about what?" Kira scratched his scalp… "Unbelievable…" he said… "Anyways, what's your plan with Cagali?" Athrun stopped… he felt that his body's temperature was rising up; his heart beat faster… he felt a slight of adrenaline coming out of his guts… "W-Well… I really haven't planned it out yet." Athrun replied… "I have to talk to her first… I just hope she'll say yes…"

"Don't worry… she will…" Kira said confidently,

"I know her very well… and she really loves you Athrun…" Kira said, "…and I'm A-O-K that you'll marry her."

"Thanks… but… we must first finish this exhibition garbage first…" Athrun said…

"I have a funny feeling, that something's not right…" Athrun added,

"Hey, you're just thinking too much… it'll be all okay…"

"I hope so…" Athrun said in his thoughts ending with a sigh,

XxXxXxXxX

It was late afternoon, and Cagali walked towards the car in front of her that was around fifteen feet away from her. The maid opened car's door, as Cagali neared the car… "Please do be careful princess…" the maid said with a bow… "Thank you… and I will be careful… just take care of the mansion while I'm gone…" Cagali said, and the maid nodded… She entered the car, at that moment, the door was closed… "Driver, I want you to drive to the harbor…" Cagali… "The usual place…" she added. "Yes, princess…" after a few minutes, Cagali saw the seashore by the window… "We're near…" she said in her thoughts… "Just one more turn and we'll be there…"

Cagali had one memory that she always held very dear to her and that was the first time that Cagali ever viewed the sunset with her Red Knight in Shining Armor… Athrun Zala… She remembered that day as if it was just yesterday. The sweet sensation of the kiss he gave that burns her lips in desire and the feeling of it being so enlightened. "Miss Athla, we are here…" the driver said, but she vacantly stared at the sunset… with her eyes all expressed in such desire of love… as her face red… "Miss Athla…" the driver said in a worried tone… "Miss Athla!" the driver repeated with a straight shout… Cagali then got back to her senses… "W-What is it?" Cagali said shyly. "We are here… at the spot that you always go to…" the driver said… "Oh… thank you… now, please give me a few minutes to watch the sunset…" she requested, "Of course, take your time…" the driver said politely… "Geez… every time we go here, she's all day dreaming… man…" the driver said in his thoughts…

After a few minutes, Cagali ordered to drive her to the orphanage… "…after you take me there, you may be dismissed after bringing the car back to the mansion…" she said to the driver straightly… Along the trip, she just viewed the scenery of the project she approved to make ORB clean and green at the same time… "Miss Athla, in case you haven't noticed, these are the fields that you approved to be reconstructed for ORB to be clean and green as you said in your speech the previous year." The driver said… "I have to admit, it was a great project… and a job well done." The driver ended with a compliment… "Thank you…" the blonde replied with a smile, although Cagali doubted that the driver could see her smiled at him, but she smiled anyway.

"Here we are Miss Athla… the orphanage…"


	2. Chapter 2: Trouble Rumble

**Chapter 2: Trouble Rumble**

* * *

"Here we are Miss Attha… the orphanage…"

"Here already? Well then, thank you for your service, and I'm sure that your family will be waiting for tonight…" Cagalli said happily…

"Well…" the driver stopped… "My family's gone…"

"Oh… I'm so sorry… I didn't-" Cagalli was intervene by the driver,

"It's ok… really…" the driver said frankly,

"They were all killed by a Mobile Suit... they were in the middle of an evacuation during the war in ORB… all of a sudden, a mobile suit popped out in front of the plane they were in and shot it without any hesitation."

"…and where were you that time?" Cagalli asked…

"…I was left out… waiting for the other plane."

"But then, instead, you saw your family along with other people killed…" Cagalli said,

"It's all because off those damned coordinators!" the driver shouted…

The driver stopped… and fell into silence… Cagalli perfectly knew how hard it is to lose a family, as she lost her father during the war. That's exactly why she wants ORB to be progressive and to be at peace. Knowing that there will be a time that war will be out again, but she strives hard for everyone to be in peace without the hatred with one another… but with the case of the driver… it seems difficult to remove that anger within them. It just makes Cagalli very disturbed from the fact. Cagalli looked at the driver clearly this time, the driver's in his uniform, a fine young man that was around 21… the same age as Cagalli… of course, she's not certain about that, but more or less she got it right. He's eye catching though, he got all looks by far... brown hair, and grey eyes…

"I guess it's time for me to go now…" Cagalli said,

"But before I do… what's your name?"

"It's… Gabriel Nova… Miss Attha…"

"Gabriel, please call me Cagalli…" Cagalli said, "I'm much comfortable with that…"

"Yes, Miss- I mean, Cagalli…" Gabriel ended with a smile…

"Well then, I have to go now… nice talking with you Gabriel…"

Cagalli walked to the front door, passing the lovely flowers planted all around the front yard of the house… _"I remembered that we all had a little picnic here… it was so great…" _she said in her thoughts, _"Kira and Lacus weren't married that time…"_ she knocked the door… and a girl shouted out… "Wait a minute!" which Cagalli recognized that it was Lacus' sweet voice. After a few seconds later, the door opened and Lacus was in front of Cagalli's sight… automatically, Lacus hugged Cagalli happily… "You're here…" Lacus said happily… "I'm so happy to see you again…"

"I'm happy to see you too Lacus!" Cagalli said happily…

Lacus released her hands from Cagalli and stepped aside from the door and said, "Please, come on in Cagalli…" Cagalli once lived with Lacus and Kira; she had her room upstairs as well as the other bedrooms. Ever since she was busy with work, and security became a matter, she had to live in the mansion… luckily; Athrun's her bodyguard, so she won't be lonely at the mansion… "Oh, nothing has change here!" she said happily as she looked around the living room… "…take a seat Cagalli…" Lacus said, and she did… Lacus also had a seat opposite from where Cagalli is. "So..?" Lacus said as she looked left and right in a very wary manner…

"So..?" Cagalli repeated Lacus' line with a very puzzled look…

"What happened?" the songstress asked,

"It's… it's just…" the blonde stopped…

"Athrun..?"

"Well, yeah…"

"What happened?"

"I really don't know…" Cagalli said as she started to be blue…

"Did he say something?"

"No… nothing offensive…" Cagalli answered in a straight-forward tone…

"I just…" she stopped… "…feel lonely...

"Don't worry Cagalli, I'll be here to keep you company…" Lacus said, trying to cheer her sister-in-law…

"Damn it! Why do they have to go to PLANTS after that test run thing was cancelled?" Cagalli said frustratingly as her eyes started to be reddish…

"Cagalli…" Lacus said faintly…"You better rest for awhile… your room's ready… I'll tell you if dinner's ready, okay?"

Cagalli nodded…

Both girls stood up, and before Cagalli went upstairs, to her room… she gave Lacus a hug… "…thank you Lacus…" she said… "Now, now… it's okay…" Lacus replied… "…you don't have to thank me…" Cagalli then let Lacus go… and went upstairs… along the way; she saw the picture of Kira and Lacus together… Kira was in a tuxedo and Lacus was wearing a very beautiful wedding gown that Cagalli couldn't even imagine. _"I wished I could wear a gown like that…"_she said in her thoughts… the picture of Kira and Lacus was very romantic… they were holding hands and they were starring at each other closely… as if it was taken from a movie. Cagalli actually chuckled that time and continued to walk to her room… and again she stopped… she saw her room, with a picture beside it on the wall… a picture of Kira and her sitting on the rich grass and with the flowers all around them… it was the front yard… the place that Cagalli usually hanged out with Kira before he got married with Lacus…

Without any further ado, she opened the door… and she saw her old things still intact and clean… it seems that Kira and Lacus are taking care of my stuff here… she closed the door… she then closed her eyes and finished with a deep sigh…

"Athrun…" she said silently to herself…

"…where are you..? When I need you most?"

She sighed again, and then walked towards her bed… she noticed that it was all taken care off… she went to her bathroom and everything was clean… and everything was there… she smiled… and said… _"Thanks bro…"_ she just knew that her twin brother was very protective of her… and she is thankful of that… even if she is the other twin. _"I think I better take a shower…"_ she gave a thought… and so she did…

After that, he tidies herself with her new outfit that she knows that Lacus placed it inside her closet. She wore a short red skirt that is slightly above her knees, with a fitting pink blouse that had some lavender ribbons on the sleeves, perfectly matched with the color of her skirt, and white flats. It all matched like Lacus' outfit though... after fixing her hair… she went down without wasting any time.

"I swear, Cagalli, you look very beautiful in that outfit…" Lacus said cheerful voice,

"You think so? You know that I'm not used to this kind of outfit…" she said with a doubt,

"Well, it's better than the usual uniform-like outfit that you use."

"I'm just not used to it…"

"If you use that more often Athrun will really be shock though, and including Kira as well…"

"Are you sure?" the blonde said in a soft voice…

"Yes… for sure…" the songstress replied.

Later on, they both had dinner… they dinned at the large dining table… with a lot of food to choose from… all of which Lacus made… "Lacus, these are great!" Cagalli said as she got a spoonful of mushroom in her mouth…

"They're my special recipes…" Lacus said with a smile…

"Geez… I wish I could cook something as great as this…" Cagalli said in envious tone,

"What? Cagalli, you don't know how to cook..?"

"Well, I do know how to cook… it's… just… that my cooking's really bad…" Cagalli said embarrassingly,

"Don't you worry… we've got a lot of time to until they'll be back, until then, why don't you stay here and I'll teach you how to cook?" Lacus offered…

"Really?" Cagalli asked hopefully, "You'll do that?"

"Of course I will, silly…" Lacus said, "… after dinner, let's get to work then?"

"Sure!" Cagalli said with a nod…

* * *

"Kira, how about we go to the bar tonight for some drink?" Athrun suggested,

"Well, ok…" Kira replied closing the television with the remote, "Let me get my phone first…"

"Okay then…" Athrun said, standing right in front of the bathroom door.

They got out of they're room and went down to the ground floor by elevator and went to the bar… it was noisy, but it didn't matter them both. By the entrance of the bar were prices and the kinds of drinks that they had… "Man… it's expensive here…" Athrun said as he looked at the prices of the drinks…

"What do you expect? This is a five star hotel Athrun…" Kira said, "Did you even see the price for our room? We're lucky that we can have a free room here…"

"I guess your right about that one…" Athrun said, "… might as well have myself a great drink."

"Don't get yourself drunk now…" Kira warned Athrun,

"Don't worry… I know how to control myself Kira…" Athrun replied defensively… "You're the one that I'm worried about… you don't drink often do you?"

"Well…" the brown haired coordinator stopped, "…well, not much…"

They entered the bar... at first glance, they saw the bar almost full… but not of wealthy men… but a bar full of drunk men… Athrun walked towards the counter with two seats that's not occupied. "Athrun, are you serious?!" Kira whispered as the noise got a little bit louder… "These people here are drunk!"

"Its fine Kira, as long as you don't talk to them, nothing's gonna be wrong…" Athrun said boldly,

"I hope you're right about this…" Kira whispered…

Athrun called up the bartender, the bartender was at his 40's… if Athrun's not wrong, he's been working here for years now, he was bald and his scalp was shining brilliantly with the light as he observed… "Bartender, what's the strongest drink you've got?" Athrun asked without any hesitation… "W-What..? Are you serious sir? I think you should reconsider..." the bartender replied nervously… "Nah… I want an order of that…" Athrun said, "A single one… anything else..? The bartender asked politely, "No… wait… make it two orders of that drink…"

"Sir, I think you should really reconsider…"

"If you would please get us our drinks…" Athrun said in a raised voice that the other customers heard him…

One of those customers reacted with Athrun's words… the man was in level with Athrun, had Red hair and he was holding a glass of wine… "Looki here boys… _(Hic) _we got some _(hic) _we got _(hic) _a rough one in our _(hic) _hands…" then two other men sitting beside the red haired man reacted with a laugh…"

Athrun stared at the red head very keen… his anger got into him that really wanted to give him a punch… _"Control Athrun..! You must control yourself!_" he said in his thoughts…_ "These are just civilians… that has no idea what you've been through!"_ he looked at Kira and he saw that Kira was ready to take them on just in case. He stared at Athrun straight, even though Kira didn't say anything, he was sure that Kira was saying "Ready when you are." He can tell…

"Now, now…_ (Hic)_" the red head said,

"We ain't no wantin' no fightin' now _(hic)_"

"So, just scramy off… if you _(Hic)_ don't want to be _(Hic)_ hurt…"

Athrun was running out of patience… he could just blow off at any second… and Kira was getting nervous that there would be a fight around… and they're in it! It would be most displeasing to know that… sometimes; its trouble can't be far away…

"You're from ORB…_ (Hic) _right..?" the red head continued,

"See, my brother died in ORB during _(Hic) _the war… _(Hic)_"

"Damn that war… _(Hic) _damn that nation…"

"_(Hic)_ now you all are getting bossed around by a _(Hic)_ girl that can't even keep herself together… _(Hic)_"

The two companions of the red haired man laughed as they were actually insulting Kira and Athrun… and from those words, it tore Athrun's mental control and got enraged almost instantly… "You take that back, you drunk bastard!" Athrun shouted as he grabbed the red head's shirt and pulled it near him, looking at the man eye to eye… "_(Hic)_ you want some fightin' eh?"

All of the sudden the red haired man dropped the glass of wine, breaking it into pieces on the floor. He then pushed Athrun away from him and at the same moment his two companions stood up, leaving their drink on the table… The bar fell into silence, as everyone in that room glanced at them blindly, drunk or not. The noise entirely faded away as Kira and Athrun stared at the three men… "Please sirs… stop this misunderstanding…" the bartender said to the red head nervously, "SHUT UP! _(Hic)_ Stay away from this… this is between me _(Hic)_ and him…" the Red haired replied harshly in a rude way…

"Don't you dare insult my girlfriend again?!" Athrun said with great anger, "Or else…" he threatened…

"…and don't you even dare talk about my sister like that!" Kira shouted as he too was enraged by those offensive words…"

"We may be in PLANTS, but you still have no right to insult ORB or the representative like that!" Athrun shouted,

"You don't even know who we are to begin with…" Kira said seriously…

"Well, _(Hic) _what's to know? All of you OR citizens are all a like! _(Hic)_"

Athrun didn't wait any longer, he dashed straight at the red head and propelled himself in midair and he hits the red head's abdomen crushing a table behind them both. Kira then moved in and punched one of the red head's associates right on the nose… being successful, he turned around and other associate tackled him pushing him after toward a table that Kira almost broke… any stronger tackle, he could've been. During that scene, the people inside the bar panic and went out of the bar in such a rush… "Security! Security!" the bartender cried out for help and hid under the counter as soon as the stampedes of both drunk and non drunk citizens were clearing away the entrance.

Athrun pulled the drunken red head with such a force that even Kira never imagined that his best friend had, and pushed him toward the counter hitting the man's back while screaming of the tremendous pain. Athrun gave a heavy jab on the guy's face… "Don't you ever insult her again?!" Athrun said in such great anger…

"What..?_(Hic)_" the red head said as blood was lightly flowing out of his nose… "…you're protecting your little _(Hic) _fragile princess?"

"Athrun pulled the guy's collar near him and spoke in a way that Kira also never knew that Athrun would have such the guts to say so.

"You bet I am..! You listen here you bastard… if you talk to ORB or the princess that way, I'll kill you!" but the Red head didn't seem to be paying much attention… he was so drunk; he could barely even speak decently… _"Ah… (Hic) Whak dist yu shey..? (Hic)"__ ("What did you say?")_

"Athrun, stop this nonsense already! The guy's drunk and he might not even remember that he had a fight!" Kira said, demanding Athrun to stop while slowly standing up as his "company" was coming…

"Don't you see...? He insulted ORB and Cagalli!" Athrun replied loudly at him

"Hold on… I've got my hands full here…" Kira said as he got a long nose bottle that was almost empty.

The two men that Kira was fighting were approaching him… trapping him from in one corner as if Kira was a stray dog being bullied in an alley. "Look, the puny guy got himself a bottle…" the large masculine man said, laughing at Kira by the insult he just said… "Right… must be a baby…" the other man said that was fairly at level with Kira but more masculine… "You two are in for it this time…" Kira said as the surge of heat flowed throughout his body… he then threw the long nose bottle toward the large masculine man, the man ducked and covered his head from the bottle that eventually missed him and hit a table at around ten feet far from him to ay the least. At that precise moment, Kira jumped and kicked the smaller man making the man hit a table behind him at the same time breaking some bottles along the way… "It's only you man me big guy…" Kira said confidently… "Johnny..? Are you alright?" the large man said as he saw his friend down on the floor with the broken table that he hit with pieces of broken glass all over him…

"What's the matter muscle brain?" Kira said insultingly…

"…You…" the man said in a really raged tone, "You shall pay for what you did to Johnny!"

"Just bring it..." Kira said as he got to his fighting stance and waited for his opponent to attack.

The masculine guy charged straight at Kira without a care of the table in front of him… "Geez… this guy's a rhino!" Kira said in his thoughts as he knew that this was not good at all… The man charged in and at a split of a second, Kira slide down under the table next to him and stood up safe… as for the man, he rammed himself to a wall. "Had enough big head?" Kira said. The man was intimidated and continued to charge in straight to Kira… "Again..?" he said, and he swiftly evaded the man's rampage and stared at him. Again, the man continued to charge at Kira… but this time, Kira didn't move, he just stood straights as the man was destroying the tables with his own body. Knowing that the man should be weak… then there's a possibility that the man's already tired and already weak. So, he stepped a side and fell on the floor intentionally, and as the man was near Kira, he released his last sort of energy and did a really strong sweep on the ground… and eventually, the man fell down… head first…

"Well, that's that for you two…" Kira said,

He looked at Athrun and it seems that the redhead fell asleep in front of Athrun… "You drunken bastard! Wake up; I'm not done with you yet!" Athrun shouted to the top of voice. Kira approached Athrun…

"Kira…" Athrun said in a very insensitive tone,

"We're going back to ORB right away..." Athrun said as he just let go of the man... making the man fell on the solid bar floor…

"What? But what about the-" Kira stopped as Athrun spoke up…

"I don't care anymore… I won't let them insult Cagalli"

"I guess so… you're right about that one…" Kira said… "…that was pretty much insulting…"

Before long, a group of guards came in the entrance of the bar… both Kira and Athrun were in for it this time… they both saw those guards with guns swarming the entrance of the bar and heading towards them by numbers… Two guards went straight to Kira; three with Athrun… both of them were apprehended without hearing them reasoning out why. "You don't understand!" Kira shouted as he struggles as the man were putting on some high tech handcuffs on Kira, as well as Athrun… "…We really didn't want to fight! That drunken bastard started everything!" but the guards cared less about what Kira said and soon enough they were brought to the police station… the guards pushed them to two sets facing a table with a lot of files on the table… piling at around a foot high… "We're so busted this time…" Athrun whispered at Kira as the guards left them in the room.

_"What are we gonna do now..?"_ Kira said faintly… lowering his voice as much as possible so the guards won't here them talking….

* * *

**Author's note:**

**I would like to thank shaktilq for giving me a great deal of help and guidance for this chapter and Freyris (the author of "My Love" that gave me the inspiration to actually write this fic… Frey… if you're reading this… I want to say thank you… if it's not for your fic… be inspired of actually making this fic now… really… thank you…**

**PS**

**I made some few errors in chapter one… I didn't know that Cagali is actually spelled as Cagalli (double L). To add it up, I didn't know that it's actually Attha and not Athla… my bad there… I booked in those mistakes there… and I'm sorry about that guys… I did all the necessary corrections… if there are still errors in the following chapters… please do inform me right away… (nobody's perfect… so it's forgivable I guess)**


	3. Chapter 3: The Sweet Escape

**Chapter 3:**** The Sweet Escape**

"What are we gonna do now..?" Kira said faintly…

"Hell do I know?! Those bastards don't know who their dealing with!" Athrun said arrogantly enraged, "We're the ones that stopped the both of the Valentine War!" he added,

"Calm down Athrun, getting out of hand won't solve anything…" Kira said, trying to calm Athrun down…

After hours of waiting, both Athrun and Kira were powerless to do anything inside the squared room full of documents scattered all around. Some of which where on the floor, some on the table, and others lying around the floor as all of those papers were garbage. In any case, both of them were stuck, and they need to get out of that place… fast. Athrun looked around the enclosed room around, a fine carpet, a very well maintained door, and the windows had a nice view. Everything seemed to be naturally natural except for one thing… the portraits of the Gundam that both Kira and Athrun used. A picture of the GAT-X303 Aegis Gundam, next to it was the ZGMF-X09A Justice Gundam… the Gundam that Athrun used to destroy the GENESIS… saving the Earth from its fatal clutches. Then there was the ZGMF-X23S Saviour Gundam, following by the ZGMF-X19S Infinite Justice Gundam which was the last Gundam that Athrun used to seal of the 2nd war. As if that was all, Kira has his own fair share, the GAT-X105 Strike Gundam the mobile suit that Kira used to defend the Archangel, which was soon destroyed with an unruly battle with the Aegis. Next to the Strike was the ZGMF-X10A Freedom Gundam, the mobile suit that he stole with the help of the songstress Lacus Clyne. The last portrait was the Gundam that Kira used to end the 2nd war ZGMF-X20A Strike Freedom Gundam…

"Athrun… all of them are our Gundam…" Kira said in a state of shock and in full of doubts,

"Well, I guess we have a fan?" Athrun said trying to make a joke…

_"…you've got to be kidding me…" _Kira said placing his hand on his forehead…

After a few minutes, the door slid open… and a guard with grey a fatigue coloured uniform with his hat covering his eyes, gently pushed the door back… preventing any noise as possible and he looked at Athrun and Kira keenly… still, Athrun and Kira couldn't see his face… "Athrun Zala… Kira Yamato…" the guard said…

"Yea? What do you want?" Athrun said rudely,

"I'm here to take you…" and the guard stopped,

"Take us where?" Athrun and Kira both said together,

"…Es…cape…"

"Escape?" Kira said with a shock, "…who are you?!"

Slowly, the guard grabbed his hat, and pulled it out… at first sight, Kira can't believe what he's actually seeing… the guard was no guard at all… it was Shinn Asuka. His former enemy… his current friend, just in a flash…

"Surprised?" Shinn said happily,

"Shinn?!" Athrun shouted…

Quickly, Shinn covered Athrun's mouth and whispered, "Be quiet or else they'll hear us!" he let go of his hand without any wild reaction from Athrun. "Now, we must escape…" Shinn said,

"But how? We stuck here with this handcuffs…" Kira answered,

"…and even if we were able to get out of this, numerous of guards are outside…"

"Don't worry" Shinn said assertively, "I've got a plan…"

* * *

**In ORB… Lacus' place…**

Cagalli still struggles with her incomplete heart despite of all of the commotion in the orphanage at this late of night. The orphanage was not that far from Lacus' place, a five minute walk would do. But at that night, the orphanage seemed to be loud… _"I can't sleep with that entire racket!__" _Cagalli said in her thoughts as she covered her face with a pillow, unfortunately, the noise got even louder… _"It's already midnight and they're still partying?!" _due to her impatience, she got out of her bed and marched downstairs.

"Oh, my, my… Cagalli, why are you up so late?" Lacus asked Cagalli as Cagalli was making a lot of stomp going down the stairs. L-Lacus?!" Cagalli was shocked, "I was gonna ask you the same question…"

"I was in the orphanage… they were having a party over there…"

"R-really? Well, must be some party huh?"

"Well, you can say that…" the songstress stopped and looked at the blonde princess with a doubt… "What about you Cagalli, why are you up at this late of night?"

Cagalli smiled at Lacus and didn't know what to say… _"Man, I can't actually tell Lacus __that the__ orphanage was too loud…"_ Cagalli said in her thoughts… Cagalli was stuck in her thoughts… she just didn't know what to say… her mind filled with reasons to back her up, but none would seem to be relentlessly useful to reason out herself. "Well…" the princess said, "…it's not disturbing me you know…"

At that moment, before Lacus could answer Cagalli, the house shook with such a force that the couch actually was flipped down "Lacus grabbed on to something!" Cagalli shouted as she grabbed the handle of the stairs… Lacus on the other hand stumbled down as the tremor s of the ground was too much for the songstress… _"What the hell is an earthquake here without any notice?__" _Cagalli said in her thoughts… _"__...t__hose__ worthless officials!"_ The quake lasted for a minute… as soon as the ground was easing out, she didn't waste any time and hurried over to Lacus and helped her up…

"Thank you…" Lacus said as Cagalli helped her…

"Are you alright?"

"Yes… don't worry about me… I'm just fine…" Lacus modestly said,

"… but I have to check the orphanage…" Lacus said as she opened the front door…

"I'll go with you!"

* * *

**Back with Athrun and Kira…**

"So… how about that..? You up for that plan Athrun, Kira?" Shinn said as unlocking the handcuffs of Athrun and Kira…

"Good enough for me… as long I can get out of this place…" Kira said…

"Hold on…" Athrun stopped, "Why are you here..?"

"W-What do you mean?" Shinn said nervously,

"Why are you helping us over here?" Athrun asked suspiciously,

"…thinking about it, I was gonna ask you the same question Shinn… why are you here risking yourself to help us?" Kira said, raising Athrun's question.

Shinn was hiding something and both Athrun and Kira got suspicious about it… whatever it is… Athrun's eager to know about… and he was a hard man to surrender… he was trained not to lose… and he just can't start now… "So..?" Athrun said, "What's in it for you Shinn..?" Shinn was having difficulties with answering Athrun's question… he didn't know what to say… but nonetheless… he was in for it. "Well…" Shinn stopped… "I'm-"

Soon enough, the building shook around and the papers inside the room were flying about everywhere… "Earthquake!" Kira shouted… Kira grabbed on the table as Athrun did the same… as for Shinn; he pushed himself against the wall. The portraits of the Gundams were falling down… the Aegis, Strike, Freedom… all of the portraits were down except for two; Kira's Strike Freedom and Athrun's Infinite Justice…

The quake lasted for about a minute, Kira balanced himself as the room was still shaky… Athrun had no problem with balancing himself as he had the proper training with such things, as for Shinn, he had no problem too… and by the looks of it, Shinn had the same training as Athrun did… or did he? If he did, it didn't matter much for now… the important thing is that they all could escape safely and for them to escape without anyone to know about it. The plan was already set for them to do so…

"Let's brief the plan… again…" Athrun said, "…we don't have much time…"

"Okay…" Kira said…

"Affirmative…" Shinn said with a nod…

"Please to make it brief…" Kira said,

"Okay… first we wait until it's 0100 hours for Stella to be in position… she'll be using the ZGMF-X88S… also known as the Gaia… after that, we'll make a move and attempt an escape at that time since security is at minimum by that. Aside from the Gaia, the Immortal will be on stand by as it'll be our ship out of here. If anything happens, a team of special forces are on stand by and will aid us with our escape."

"Everything seems to be... fine…" Kira said laboriously, "…but what's really going on here?"

Kira was really suspicious about it, Shinn was really in for it and there's no possible way to avoid it anymore. He might as well as crack up before Kira and Athrun does… As he knows how these two are when they're mad. There was also one thing that Kira wasn't clear about though… the Immortal… what exactly is it? Why is it near PLANTS? When law states that any War Ship should be out of limits from any republic except if given permission to do so by officials. Could it be that they're rebellions? Kira had that thought inside him that doubted Shinn, but he was his only choice out… he didn't have any choice but to trust him with the outmost care. Kira starred at Shinn a droplet of sweat running down slowly from his forehead to the nose.

"You're hiding something… Shinn…" Kira said freely,

"You're not the only one that's thinking that Kira," Athrun said, "…he's really hiding something."

"Fine!" Shinn cracked up, "I'll tell you… but after we escape this damn place!"

_"Impatient…"_Athrun assumed…

Two more minutes before two in the morning… Athrun was widely awake after meeting Shinn for four hours… Kira was sitting patiently, as Shinn was leaning on a wall with a hand in his pocket; eyes closed. Athrun moved over by the window with one side cracked due to the earthquake… then he saw quite a number of military men all around the streets… tanks roaming around slowly with some police cars patrolling the city despite that he was at least ten floors above. Realizing the upcoming danger, Athrun informed the others,

"Kira, the place's a war zone."

"What?" Kira stood up from his seat…

"Look, tanks everywhere, police patrolling… and soldiers all around the streets…" the blue haired coordinator pointed at the window,

Kira walked towards the window and Shinn as well. When he first laid eyes of the view… he was shock to see tanks on streets… Shinn was shocked too, but it seems that they're all in a pinch now. "What the hell are we going to do now?" Shinn said with a bit of rage.

"We can pull it off…" Athrun said,

"Are you crazy Athrun?! Those are tanks and trained soldiers!"

"I know… Kira and I can handle them..."

"Are you out of your mind?" Shinn shouted abruptly…

"Quiet down!" Kira whispered,

"The only reason that we're still in this room is that they're all busy with something…"

"Your right, thinking about it, there's some reason why they left us here for hours…" Athrun said leaving him thinking…

Shinn checked his watch, and it seems that it was time… it was time. His watch made a very light static sound, for 2 seconds, and Shinn moved his mouth near to it… he clicked something on the watch and said, "Shinn Asuka… on position…" after that, two seconds later, another voice came in…

"Stella Lousier, on position…"

"Fortune… ready to go…"

"Yzak Joule… good to go…"

"Dearka Elsman… condition green…"

By Athrun's shock, Yzak and Dearka were there… but why? What business did they have with Shinn, and the ship called Immortal… _"A reunion..?"_ Kira said in his thoughts. "Good, they're all here… I guessed the CAPTAIN prepared backup…" Shinn said with a smile… "Don't get cocky Shinn; this battle didn't even start yet!" Yzak shouted out by the watch. Recognizing the voice almost immediately, Athrun was sure that it was really Yzak. Dearka laughed out loud just after what Yzak said, "Hey… don't get excited boys…" Stella interrupted almost as if she was teasing all of them… "Yzak!" Athrun shouted, "Why are you here?" expecting an answer, instead, Yzak's voice was gone just by an instant.

"Athrun…" Dearka said, "Save it for later…"

Then the transmission ended… Shinn clicked something again on his watch and then placed it normally as it was on his wrist. Athrun pushed Shinn to the wall, pulling his shirt up with force… "You tell me what's going on Shinn!" he shouted…

"Athrun, stop that! He's our only chance to get out of this!" Kira reasoned out,

"So what?" Athrun muttered, "We can still get out of here without his help!"

"Do you think we can handle an entire army out there?!"

Athrun suddenly stopped from his thoughts and actions. He slowly released Shinn from his forceful grasps with his senses coming back completely. In his thoughts, he wanted to take Shinn down and make him spill out what he wanted to know. A way of interrogation which he had in his training long before. IT wasn't an option though… Kira was right… if he did those things to Shinn, something bad might happen…

_"Control Athrun, CONTROL!"_Athrun said to himself in his thoughts…

Kira passed between them and looked at the window… it seems that the PLANTS defenses are increasing every minute and if he's not wrong, then the number of tanks and soldiers patrolling around the city have almost doubled… if not, at least they're increase at least a quarter of the total. That number was no joke though… an increase of 25 is something huge. Whatever PLANTS is planning, he was now sure that they're not protecting something… rather, preparing a counter attack from incoming hostiles which Kira, Athrun and Shinn aren't aware of.

"Shinn… Shinn Asuka" Shinn's watch went off of a familiar female voice.

"This is the Immortal, are you in position..?"

"Yes Captain… on position…"

"Good, first make your move Shinn, we'll be in low orbit soon and we'll approach PLANTS at a direction that we'll send to you in your watch… Stella will aid you as the Fortune will help you with the gun fires as you know that they're Special Forces. Yzak and Dearka will be at the flanks... supporting Stella from any buggy. I'm sure that we briefed everything out at first… and there would be no reason for you to fail..." the female voice said straightly…

The voice that they heard was very familiar, Athrun knew that voice Kira too… the only problem is that he they both can't remember that voice. "Shinn," the watch went on again…

"It's time… move out…"

"Roger…" Shinn answered …

"Show time…" Athrun said…

Shinn got a really high tech pistol. It looked liked a Beretta 93R a semi –automated handgun that was reliable since the 20th century. Times changed, technology improved and despite that lasers and advanced war machines were made throughout the span of that time, the traditional guns were still in and effective. Although they've been modified drastically to fit in the technology, they still used real bullets instead of lasers like in movies like star wars… even if they have that technology already. As the saying goes, nothing beats more than the old fashion way. The handgun that Shinn had had a small snipe scope attached on it with some contraption above that scope which Kira and Athrun didn't know what it was.

"Are you ready?" Shinn said, looking at Athrun and Kira with a questioned face…

Athrun nodded, "Ready when you are…"

"Always have been…" Kira said,

Shinn breath deeply… he had an anxious feeling which ripples with the cold morning air. He opened the door slowly with the air all chilly that makes him shiver in both fear and the low temperature. He took a peak outside the dark and cold room, cautious of anyone… or anything. Kira stepped outside; he kneeled down and pushed himself to an office desk. Athrun on the other hand rolled over to another office desk… a desk far from Kira. Shinn then stared at the only entrance door watching over. He looked back at Kira and nodded. It was clear that everything was clear and Kira ran straight at the entrance, Athrun slowly followed him Shinn walked vigilantly towards the entrance door passing the middle part of the office as Kira and Athrun went to the left and right side respectively.

Confidently, Kira had that thought that they were free from the room. Suddenly, a flash of light arrayed out of no where, Kira then jumped over desk and hid himself below that desk that was covered with one side below which was perfect for hiding. Athrun on the other hand, slide down sideways, hitting the hard wall with a cracked window above him that looked worse than the one in the room that they were in earlier. As for Shinn, he hid himself behind a desk, just 3 desks behind Kira. Tension was building with Kira… he's the nearest to the entrance and he can't even see what's happening… Shinn raised his head up, took a peak… it seems that the light was fading away already… he didn't now why, but he'll take his chances any way. "Clear…" Shinn said, just loud enough for both of his companions to hear.

Kira stood up and walked towards the entrance door… he slid it open slowly and stealthily. He swooped out swiftly and left Athrun and Shinn inside. Athrun looked at Shinn with a serious look and nodded. They then walked outside the room; following Kira.

* * *

They turned off the main power, having a clear advantage with the environment being dark and all. Still, they're not out of danger yet, they still have to get out of the building and get to the rendezvous point. They were in the 3rd floor walking in the hallway, finding the stairs. After three minutes or so, they all heard someone said "Clear" in such a serious voice. 

"Athrun, did you hear that?!" Shinn whispered,

"Yea… we better hide!" he answered back…

They all pushed themselves against the wall… then they heard a loud bang again… "Clear" then again, another bang, "Clear" it went on over and over. "Special Forces..?" Kira guessed…

"Could be…" Athrun said…

"…Shinn, contact those special forces you said…"

"Roger…"

He grabbed his watch and clicked it. "Special Forces… Fortune… this is Shinn Asuka…" Shinn said…

"Shinn Asuka, this is the Fortune…"

"Status report Fortune…"

"Location… 2nd floor… no hostiles found… everything's clean in our end… going to the 3rd floor now… how about in your end…"

"Currently in the 3rd floor… we've cut the power out so the security cameras won't be of any use. Remain in your position… we'll be there in short while."

"Hurry… so we can bust out of here…"

"Got it…"

He ran down the stairs quickly as possible; Kira and Athrun following him behind. Even though the place was dangerous to make any reckless move, they disregarded that fact and just went head on straight to the Fortune. Shinn saw a team of five men in uniforms with semi-automatic guns of the future… all the equipment they had are at least five years advanced than any of the military in Earth, ZAFT and PLANTS had. Shinn walked the hallway and stood at the middle of the hallway, in front of the Fortune, chest out…

"Shinn Asuka. Reporting…" Shinn said with a salute.

The five men in uniforms all returned the salute back, and had an eagle eye at Athrun and Kira… raising their weapons, straight at them… "Identify your selves!" their commander demanded…

"Sergeant, its ok… that's the prize…" Shinn explained…

"…lower your weapons…"

* * *

0300 hours… 

"Stella, we are out of the building… start phase 2…" Shinn ordered…

"Roger…" Stella affirmed

"Gaia; moving to position…"

"Buster- on the move" Dearka said over the communicator…

"Ignited- going!" Yzak said,

Seconds later, Athrun, Kira, Shinn and the Special Forces Fortune is running about the open streets of downtown PLANTS, they're lucky that there aren't any soldiers in that street… but it was odd as well. But they didn't have any time to talk; all of them were running to the rendezvous point as fast as they could.

"Everyone!" the Sergeant shouted out, "…it's gonna be a war zone here in a short while… I want everyone to be in full alert."

At war… Kira had that phrase in his head… he was confused about it. In fact, he didn't know what's happening already… it was all full of shit which he never expected… everything got messed up somehow… and he they were in the middle of it.

Soon, they reached a crossing… "Good… we're almost there." Shinn said in his thoughts… as the plan went when they were briefing at the Immortal, they have to cross the bridge… after that, cut off the bridge by planting a bomb on the bridge… preventing anyone from chasing them.

"Go! Move!" the Sergeant shouted,

But all of a sudden, they heard a loud bomb exploded… Athrun judged that it was about a kilometer away from their position. At that point, all of them stopped.

"What was that?!" one of the men of Fortune said anxiously…

"A bomb..?" Kira guessed…

"No…" Shinn answered…

"Shinn's right… it's not a bomb…" Athrun said…

The earth moved steadily and Kira feared that it was the same quake as before… if it was; PLANTS would go down… the damage of the first quake was clearly shown with the broken windows, cracked walls, and even streets all opened up with cracks. Kira felt the ground shook even wilder… and it's not looking good for all of them...

_"Look! They're over there!" _someone shouted from afar warning everyone about their location…

_"Oh… shoot… we're in for it now…__" _Kira said in his thoughts…

"Everyone, hide! We've got company!" the Sergeant said,

All of them ran for cover, the Fortune went to an initial position almost instantly and flawlessly, the two of them took cover behind a pick up truck that looked like from the 19th century, another went afar and took cover with his long rifle ready, the sergeant took cover behind a beautiful Ferrari sports car… the last man took cover at the side of a building… Kira rolled to the side of the building… Athrun took cover with the sergeant, as for Shinn, he went with the other two men taking cover behind the pick up truck.

"Fortune, code 55-14!" the Sergeant barked out,

"Do your thing boys!" he added,

Code 55-14… as far as Athrun remembers his training, it's a code that simply means to protect and defend. Effective when in a rescue mission or anything else that needs to be protected. In any case, Kira predicted that they'll be in a pinch… they were in a crossing and the worse case is that they'll be cornered… in all four directions! He just wished that that won't happen. "Here… take it!" the man in uniform handed over to Kira, it was a handgun. "…you do know how to use that?" the man asked Kira with a doubt… "…well, who am I kidding, of course you do." Kira then gave a nod.

"Athrun… get the gun in my bag pack…" the sergeant said loudly, as he positions himself to left side, the direction that they all heard the voice.

"This handgun is-" Athrun stopped,

"Don't give me that detail shit! The important thing here is if you know how to use that." The sergeant said…

"Sergeant… you're talking to Athrun Zala… I'm sure that by that name, you know my profile then?" Athrun said in an infuriated voice…

"A-Athrun Zala?!" the Sergeant said in a shock,

"S-Sir, I'm so sorry for my manners!"

"Its ok sergeant… you're doing your job… and you're doing a great job."

The fortune positioned them selves defensively and offensively. The only problem is that they didn't know what was coming for them… tanks, soldiers, or even worse a mobile suit which they won't stand a chance against them. A sudden silence came in and the air was steady, the ground shaking… the pressure immense. The left side had a corner where their enemies could hide… but their sniper would take them out easily, the bad side is that the corner is wide enough for two tanks to come in together… they don't have the right weapons to take on a tank.

"Immortal! Immortal! This is Shinn Asuka with the Special Forces Fortune… we've been found by the enemies… they have been alerted by our presence! I don't know how many are coming towards our position… but we are pinned down here to go anywhere- Requesting immediate support ASAP!" Shinn contacted the Immortal from his watch.

"Copy that Shinn… two Mobile armors is on the way… repeat… FX-550 Skygraspers are on the way to your position via GPS coordinates…" a reply was sent…

"Roger Immortal…"

"INCOMING!" the sergeant shouted, "TAKE COVER!"

Shinn turned his head and shock to see a missile heading towards them… as a red Skygrasper passed by over them… "IMMORTAL! TELL YOUR PILOTS THAT THEY'RE SHOOTING THE WRONG MEN!" with a great timing, he jumped down to the hard street floor as the missile passed by them hitting a building that was about 30 ft far from them. "Damn! They're shooting the wrong guys!" the man with Kira shouted…

"Open Fire!"

After that, a barrage of bullets headed straight at Kira and the others. "Take cover!" Kira then closed his eyes… inhaled deeply and sighed heavily… he looked at Athrun taking cover as the Ferrari in front of him receives all the bullets… "Damn, that Ferrari's a waste!" the sergeant said… the sniper then started to fire… hitting a soldier after another… the man next to Kira started to retaliate… he set his semi-automatic gun to full auto and fired wildly but precisely… the two men behind the pick up truck also fired back. There were about twenty soldiers firing at them… and it was reduced to seven instantly. The crossfire stopped, without wasting anytime, all of the fortune reloaded. Kira looked behind them and it didn't wasn't good… the red Skygrasper was coming back fast…

"Skygrasper at 6 o' clock!" Kira shouted, warning everyone

The Skygrasper fired two missiles at them, unlike the first strike, the missile was unmistakably to miss them… this time, one of those missiles are bound to hit them directly… "Shinn, RUN!" Athrun shouted, Shinn looked at the missile for a second and ran straight towards Athrun while the sergeant covers Shinn the missile hit the pick up truck, which exploded to smithereens with two of the fortune's men. As for the other missile, it went straight to the seven men left hitting them directly. The pick up truck flew up in the air and hit the ground with a wrecked junk at the middle of the crossing, without any bodies to be found. "Dammit! Two men down…"

"IMMORTAL! We have two of fortune's men down! We are being under attacked here by PLANTS' soldiers and an unknown red Skygrasper!" Shinn yelled out as is he's going to freak out.

"Shinn, hold on, the Skygraspers are on the way now…"

"Hold on?! HOLD ON?! Are you crazy! We're run downed here! We won't survive another strike of that mobile armor again!"

"SHINN TAKE COVER NOW, WE'VE GOT COMPANY!" the sergeant said…

Again, a barrage of bullets rushed towards all of them. All of them took cover except for the sniper… he continued to fire relentlessly without them knowing. One down, two, three… every ammo was counted it seems that he could take out the entire wave of soldiers. "HOLD FIRE!" the sergeant roared out… but with the all the noise of the gun fire… the sniper could hear him… which is a grave mistake. Bullets hits his covering point one after another, quickly, he took cover…

Soon enough, Shinn's watch went out again…

"This is the Skygrasper 13-56A… approaching your current position SIR."

"Skygrasper 13-66B – orders SIR."

"Skygrasper 13-56A… an unknown red Skygrasper is in the area- search and destroy…"

"Roger that…"

"Skygrasper 13-66B… we need air support… repeat, AIR SUPPORT!"

"Yes SIR."

As the spray of bullets continues… two white Skygraspers swoop above them loudly despite the noise of the gunfire… all of the sudden the fire stopped and someone from their side shouted to take cover, Kira looked behind them and two missiles were heading towards them… Kira thought that it was the end of it all. He closed his eyes and pictured the two girls that he cared more than anyone else, Lacus his wife and Cagalli his twin sister. A loud swoosh passed by them followed by a really thunderous bang. Kira opened his eyes, relieved to see that their alive he took a peak of their enemies… and was amazed to see that those missiles were actually headed for their enemies and not them.

The streets were now silent… this time… anything could happen. They were all in the same position… watching anywhere and everywhere… after a few seconds later; the sergeant stood up and reloaded his weapon. The two others also stood up and reloaded… Kira joined with Athrun and Shinn.

"SIR, this is Skygrasper 13-56A… the unknown red Skygrasper is found… I am currently in a dogfight with this bastard…"

"SIR, requesting to join 13-56A in the battle…"

"Approved…" Shinn said.

"We must cross that bridge…" the sergeant pointed, "…after that, we blow that bridge and head for our rendezvous point."

"Understood sergeant… let's move out then…"

They all ran to across the bridge… just after they crossed the bridge, three Gundam were visible from afar… flying towards them.

"I guess their here…" Shinn said,

"…you mean Stella, Yzak and Dearka?" Kira confirmed,

"Yes, that's them." Shinn answered,

A siren then went on all around the city… it was a sign, a sign nonetheless that was all clear to Athrun and Kira- a fooling sound that cheats ever commoner and citizens in the city. Kira looked at Athrun and Athrun looked at Kira, both of them had that "Oh, SHIT" look and things now couldn't get even worse. Athrun was confident enough that the Fortune and Shinn won't notice that look of theirs… but it was disturbing enough already that it all got worse in such a short span of time.

If it did, they didn't have time, they have to cheat death if necessary and to escape safely from PLANTS. That's their priority now, they can't think of anything else but their reluctant escape with Shinn…

"Let's go Shinn… it's gonna be real bad over here…" Athrun said,

"Ok…" Shinn responded with a nod,

They all then continued to run straight down the road without anything to stop them. Nothing, except when they reached the residential area… citizens was now crowding the roads and streets, some panicking, others in a hurry to pack out of PLANTS. "…they're all fools…" Kira said in his thoughts… they stopped running and started to walk slowly and calmly… knowing that they had guns… they might start a rampage, which was the least that they needed…

"Great," the sergeant gestured,

"…civilians… this is so not our day."

They slowly walked towards the crowded residential, hoping that everything will be fine. As the pass the first few houses, some looked at them with fear, others in a rude and serious way. No doubt that they're getting suspicious… but it was too far too late to turn back now…

"We only have two options here…" Shinn whispered,

"First… to continue to walk here until someone will freak out… or…" he stopped…

"…to make a run for it."

"Are you crazy?! That's really unwise for us to do…" the sergeant said straightly,

"Hey, look, sooner or later, someone will freak out, so might as well as make a run for it then…" Shinn answered back…

They had that argument as they continue to walk with caution, until they heard a blast of beams.

"What the hell was that that?!" the sergeant said with a strange puzzled look,

"GUNDAM…" Kira murmured,

"That was from a Gundam…"

It does not gonna be good… Athrun had that thought. If those Gundams had a fight here, people will panic and it's gonna be one heck of a rampage for them to be in the middle and on how they could possibly escape without anyone at harm's way…

Again, they saw the Red Skygrasper passed by above them with two Skygraspers of their own on it tail. "SIR, two missiles are heading in your way! Repeat, TWO MISIILES WERE LUNCH AND HEADING YOUR WAY!" Shinn's watch went on loudly, Kira turned around and the large missiles were really heading straight for them. To add it up, residence were now panicking uncontrollably.

"Everyone, hit the FLOOR!" the sergeant commanded, and they did…

The first missile hit a beautiful house, just 40 meters far from them resulting to debris to fly around all over the pass. As for the second missile, it passed them and heading straight for the crowd that was now running for their lives. Kira felt time slowed down as he heard a loud blow following with people crying in pain… those eerie screeches, those yelps… and those shouting, Kira's heart dropped as he knew that those people were now dead without having a littlest of chance to survive. All of them stood up, as they watch people dying at a distance of 40 meters or so… powerless to do anything about it.

"Guys, hurry it up over there… we can't hold of an entire battalion of Zakus here!" Shinn's watch got it on again,

"Just hold on Stella… we're almost there…" Shinn said as the screams were getting louder…

"What's that noise..?" Stella said with grossed tone…

"People…" Shinn stopped… "…dying…"

The transmission ended quickly and the sergeant breathes deeply… "Let's move out…" he said, "we can't keep them all waiting…"

* * *

They all continued to run to the rendezvous point… after twenty minutes of running… they were finally there… The place was just open... a huge wide park that could even fit two football fields. 

"What the heck are we standing here for?" Athrun asked as he catches his breath,

"We're here… the Immortal's here…" Shinn answered as he grabbed his watch again,

"Shinn Asuka… we're here at the rendezvous point…" he whispered at the watch…

"Roger… Immortal, disabling stealth mode…"

Athrun was shock to see; piece by piece a huge ship was appearing in front of him. It was extremely huge, at least, bigger than the archangel as he remembers it well. Amazed, he even gave a smile which directly means that he was somewhat impressed.

"Athrun… Kira… this is the Immortal…" Shinn said with great pride…

"It's huge…" Kira said with an awed tone…

The Immortal was similar to the Archangel, since their reference model was the Archangel itself, it was evidently that they made another version of the Archangel… a newer version. Unlike the Archangel, the Immortal packs a punch more than twice the power of the Archangel, having defense mechanism far advanced than the previous ships made. Truly, the immortal was a dream ship for the military… or is it really in the hands of the military? Either way, Athrun didn't care, as long as they get out of the ridged PLANTS. Kira on the other hand is just worried about his wife and her twin. Shinn was just happy to finish his job, while the Fortune grieves on their two fallen comrades that died bravely during their mission. Now, it was time to leave… and the three Gundams were left to successfully make their escape and to accomplish their mission. Still, everything is just uneven... both Athrun and Kira are still unanswered with what happened here. Shinn and the others have to answer them quickly, before the two best friends' gets their cool out and a rampant happening would occur… which is most displeasing.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

** Sorry for the late update... I've been having some difficulties with this chapter due to my never ending work in school... to add it up the ever dreadful... HOMEWORK. Hey, I managed to pull it off somehow... lucky for me, my emotions didn't mess my story up... yea, I've been down lately... love problem you may say? All I can answer is... "Close enough..." but that doesn't matter, I still have better things to go to rather than being at some "EMO mode" kinda thing. In any case, I hope that you liked this chapter...  
**


	4. Chapter 4:The Battle had just Begun

**Chapter 4:**** The Battle had just Begun…**

The sun slowly rose as Kira and Athrun were on the deck of the Immortal. Athrun was looking at how the crimson sun rises. Kira was on the other side, looking down at the vast azure colored ocean. So did it happen that all of them made it out alive... except for the two members of the Fortune and the pilot of Skygrasper 13-66B was badly injured after a spark in the cockpit, not to mention that the mobile armor was releasing a lot of thick smoke. Even if they did evade the wrath of PLANTS, they were not out from danger yet. PLANTS is on high alert now and Athrun's confident that it'll be in the news late on. He wished that that this unfortunate event didn't happen but there's no escape from reality, in fact he had no doubt that the headlines will be "PLANTS at war!" or even "PLANTS under attack!" either way, it won't change a thing that PLANTS will be in high alert and they'll look for that mysterious ship that caused the massive damage done in just three hours. He was frustrated about it, but there's only so much one can ever do… even if he did have the power to change it, he can never undo what had ever happened. With his head all covered up by the happenings at PLANTS, he cooled down and gave a really deep thought of Cagalli… his Cagalli.

Kira was more than certain to be able to keep his own temper and to keep it all cool. Isn't it all that strange, regardless of what happened, he was still calm and well-mannered? Yes, people are different, but not that different, is it because of the countless lives that he killed that was not really necessary. Deep inside, he's hurt of what happened, all those countless lives slaughtered right in the middle of their "WARZONE". He saw it with his own two eyes, people screaming, people begging, and yelping; he was just powerless to help any of them. _"…I couldn't save them…"_ he said in his thoughts… He then just felt bad of what happened.

* * *

At ORB…

"Good morning Cagalli…" Lacus said as Cagalli walked down the stairs,

"Morning sis…" Cagalli replied with a yawn…

"You still can't sleep?"

"I guess…" Cagalli mumbled as she rubbed her eyes off…

"Then you really should rest up Cagalli, you don't want Kira giving you another sermon…"

"I know, but I have to get back to work…"

"Oh forget about that for once!" Lacus shouted, "Your health is more important you know!"

"But-"

"No…"

"Lacus, you don't get it…"

"No Cagalli…"

"Fine then…" Cagalli gave up… "I won't do work today."

"Good…" Lacus said giving Cagalli smile after,

It was funny though, after what happened last night, it's as if nothing happened… Cagalli gave a thought. When they went to check the orphanage, even though everything was a mess, everyone was just fine. Both Cagalli and Lacus were relieved though. Still, what was the sudden earthquake? ORB could've given an early warning… but what happened?

"Lacus, could you turn on the television?" Cagalli kindly asked,

"Sure," the songstress replied, "…but why?"

"ORB didn't give an early warning… which is very odd…"

"Thinking about it… you have a point…"

Lacus walked towards the couch, grabbed the remote and had the huge widescreen television on with the news at first. Lacus sat down on the pink and cozy couch, Cagalli followed after. The timing was great though, as soon as Lacus sat down the news went on air. Cagalli seriously watched the news. Was it by sheer luck, or by just a coincidence, the first news was about the earthquake.

"Good morning everyone!" the female newscaster said on the television, "ORB received numerous complain about the earthquake last night and as it seems, the powerful quake could've been forecast earlier and warn the masses."

"That's right," her partner said, "ORB didn't do… now questions are flying off this morning, what's the representative doing these days? The princess' father never allowed any irresponsible acts."

"Now…" the female newscaster changed topic, "moving on…"

Cagalli was shocked of the news. She stopped her movements and blindly stared straight at the widescreen television. Lacus looked at Cagalli in deep concern… its bad enough to know that something went wrong with the people in ORB, but accusing her at the same time? That only meant one thing in Cagalli's part… pure emotional pain. With her reactions, it was inevitable that she'd be happy or anything else. Lacus then closed the television and talked to Cagalli,

"Cagalli…" Lacus muttered,

"I'm fine…"

"Are you sure..?"

"…yeah," Cagalli said with a nod,

"Let's have some breakfast first…"

"I'm not hungry…"

Cagalli stood up and weakly walked to her room with her head down, her face covered by her blonde hair… She slowly closed the door and leaned on the door… thinking… "What's happening to me?!" was she going crazy..? No, certainly not, even so, she was truly bothered by the news… Media these days are not that many resources with the truth these days though, but Cagalli prevented at least 70 of the false information to be broadcast all over ORB, chances were slim, but it wasn't impossible, what if it was the 30? It would actually be great, but then again, chances were slim. She closed her eyes, imagining her Red Knight in Shining Armor protecting her all the time, but that imagination won't be true this time, in fact, she has no idea what happened to them either… all she knows is that Athrun and Kira are in PLANTS.

"CAGALLI!!! HURRY!" Lacus shrieked,

Knowing that that scream was something out of the ordinary, without wasting any time, she rushed downstairs, and dashing towards the couch were Lacus was watching the news…

"What is it Lacus? What happened?!" Cagalli asked in a very nervous manner,

"…look…" Lacus said as she pointed at the television…

Cagalli looked at the television and it showed images of the broken down PLANTS. The headlines went on with large capital letters, "PLANTS AT WAR!" it continued to show images of what happened to plants, and then reporters went ob babbling on the critical time that PLANTS are now having until reports headed in that a tourist captured a home video of what happened that time. They home video was played and a huge ship was destroying the PLANTS and making their escape with three Gundams that both Cagalli and Lacus knew very well, the Gaia, Buster and the Ignited… that only meant one thing for them… trouble.

"Lacus…" Cagalli said,

"Those Gundams… they're the… ones…" she added,

"I know Cagalli…" Lacus said, "…I have a bad feeling about this."

Obviously, they instantly knew that Kira and Athrun are somewhat involved by that attack. The television continued to show that the video camera recorded… reports were in that civilians in the residential area were killed by an unsuspecting missile by the attackers during their evacuation, where twenty civilians were killed. As if it wasn't bad enough, it's been estimated that more than 150 soldiers of PLANTS were killed. Reports also got in that before the attack, an unsuspected earthquake occurred that caused some damage in PLANTS.

The video went on as the dark sky being reddish and bullets were flying off to the sky, trying to hit the huge ship and missiles were repelled by a single burst of powerful laser cannon from a Gundam. Cagalli knew that signature move, Lacus was suspicious about it as well… only one person could make that move and that was the Buster… piloted by the one and only… Dearka Elsman.

"Lacus… you don't think that was the Buster?" Cagalli asked as she continued to watch PLANTS tries to bring the ship down.

"Oh my, that was the Buster…" Lacus stopped, "This is not good…"

"Why?""Athrun and Kira might be involved here… personally…"

"What?! Are you serious?!"

"Yes… I am… I really have a bad feeling about this…"

Despite of her emotional state that she misses her Athrun, after being insulted lowly and impractically from television, now her heart dropped out from the lowest of low as she was now enormously hurt and worried… fear filled her inside and out, she just can't lose Athrun or Kira… the two men that she loves most… Lacus was certainly feeling the same… she was the former lover of Athrun and currently the wife of Kira… she just can't lose them both either. Cagalli grabbed her phone in her pocket right away and called Athrun instantly.

* * *

**In the Immortal,**

Athrun was done with his viewing and Kira was just waiting for Athrun to finish. Athrun was feeling very deep, he was more than sure that the feeling he's presently feeling is the feeling of being apart from his lover… his princess. Even if he wanted to see her really badly, he just couldn't just because the Immortal's going to a destination that the Captain never mentioned… in truth, they don't even know who the Captain of the ship is.

"Athrun, c'mon, let's go…" Kira said,

"Okay…" Athrun said with nod,

Athrun walked towards the entrance and Kira pressed a pressure pad by hand which opened the door instantly. They walked down, straight to the eating area.

"Kira, don't you think we should go back?" Athrun said,

"What do you mean go back?" Kira asked with difficulty, "Back to PLANTS?"

"NO! I'm not crazy enough to go there…""Then ORB?"

"Yes, exactly…"

"You miss her already, don't you?" Kira chuckled,

"W-What?"

"Just admit it Athrun, you miss her…"

"Alright, I admit… I do… miss her a lot."

All of the sudden, Athrun felt his pocket vibrating and instantly he knew that it was his phone, at the same time, the phone ringed and the tone was somewhat catchy. Kira noticed it clearly and nodded at Athrun, he grabbed his phone at once and he answered it without even looking at the phone.

"Hello?" Athrun answered the phone,

"Athrun, where are you? Are you safe? Are you hurt? What happened? Is Kira with you? Are you two eating properly?"

"Cagalli?!" Athrun was shocked to hear here voice even if she was babbling so fast,

"…Athrun, are you listening to me? I hope you are… hey! Athrun! What happened with you and Kira there? Where exactly are you?!"

"Cagalli, calm down…""How can I calm down?! We were worried sick about you two…"

"We're just fine Cagalli; apparently, we're in the Immortal…"

"The Immortal?" Cagalli repeated with difficulty,

"It's a huge ship-"

"You mean you're in the ship that attacked PLANTS?!"

"It didn't attack PLANTS… they rescued us…"

"What do you mean rescued..?""We were in a trouble and ended up in the police station…. After that, Shinn was there to rescue us with Stellar, Yzak and Dearka."

"You really have a lot to explain to me Athrun Zala…"

"I promise, I'll explain everything when we get there…"

"You better do…"

"Don't worry, I will…"

"Ok… just take care of yourselves… I have to go now… bye Athrun… I love you…"

"Bye princess… I love you too…" Athrun said with a very sweet voice…"

Athrun slowly closed his phone with a very relieving feeling and slid it in his pocket. Kira looked at him mischievously and gave Athrun a grin. It was clear that Kira was teasing Athrun in a way, but not that much though… it's not his fault though he was never good with teasing other people, so did Athrun, they were always too serious. Besides, during the Ultimate Coordinator project, being a funny guy was not in the list. Athrun looked at Kira as he was slightly blushing. Before they could strike a conversation, the door of the deck opened with Shinn, Stellar, Yzak and Dearka marching towards them with someone behind them. As it seemed, the person behind them was the one and only person that Kira can never forget… that person is no other than Mu La Flaga. The only man that made them all believed that miracles really can happen.

"Mu La Flaga?!" Athrun said with a certain shock…

"That's right… you still remember me eh?" Mu said happily…

"How could we ever forget you Mu?" Kira said as he approached Mu closer so they could talk properly,

"Kira… Athrun… it's nice to see you two again…"

"Yea… it's nice to see you again too Mu…" Kira said,

Mu La Flaga was still the same… he had that scar on his face that left him changed forever, his inevitable act and style still remains within him as he was too bold and too reckless regarding with his mission and women as well… eventually, that resulted him to be stuck at Captain… probably even forever. Nonetheless, they were all glad to see each other again; it's just that it's not really a great time to really celebrate their meeting. They were all in danger… and PLANTS are after them…

"Athrun, you do know about our situation… right?" Mu La said with a serious look at Athrun,

"Yes…" Athrun replied giving back the same look Mu La gave,

"Then you are aware that we are in danger..?"

"Of course I am!""Then you must help us!"

"Help you? Are you out of your mind?" Athrun shouted out with frustration running his vein…

"We need you Athrun!" Mu La shouted back, "We need you and Kira as well!"

"So we could do your dirty works for you?!"

"No! It's not like that!"

"Then what is it?"

Silence fell into that place after all the shouting. Athrun looked at Mu LA Flaga with a rough look as Mu La also gave the same angry look at Athrun. Both of them stood face to face with a distance of just a meter… enough for any of them to start a fist fight. Kira looked at them closely ready to stop both of them from any fight. Stellar was staring at them with her hands on her chest as fear took over her regarding the two men. Shinn was nervous… he fears that something bad could happen and like Kira, he was prepared to stop them. Yzak did watch them had that certain argument but Yzak was just standing there by the side, happy in fact, happy to see that Athrun is still the old Athrun he know. Dearka was also calm like Yzak, although he felt a bit uncomfortable regarding Athrun having this huge misunderstanding with their Captain.

"You just don't get it Athrun," the Captain said,

"What's there to understand Mu?"

"We're all… in danger."

"That's why Kira and I have to go back to ORB!"

"You can't!"

"Why not?!" Athrun asked with an angered tone.

"…because…" Mu stopped clearing his throat and gave a firm look,

"…because a third war might escalate any time."

"…you just made it worse though…" Kira butted in,

"You invaded PLANTS for us with three Gundams firing their army and two Skygraspers bombarding all over the pass just to support our escape. I know that you want us to join your resistance… but… it's just not possible anymore."

"We're both over with these military thing… we just want a normal life." Athrun said frankly,

"But you two are not ordinary!" Mu reasoned out,

"That doesn't mean we can't be normal." Kira countered,

"Well…" and Mu stopped…

"Your right…"

That talk ended up with silence and Mu La Flaga was cut off with his words. He knew at that point that both of the coordinators were determined and they just can't be beaten easily, even in arguments. Yes, it is true that Kira was made as the perfect and the ultimate coordinator. Athrun's not like Kira though, he's not the ultimate one, but surely that he's a real good coordinator that can handle Gundams all too well, sometimes even outwit Kira.

As the conflict between Athrun and Mu La Flaga cools down, one of the personnel was running as fast as he could and was shouting "Captain! It's urgent!" Mu turned around and the staff member that was running towards him was now catching his breath.

"Sir… we have news about PLANTS!" private said,

"What is it private?" Mu said seriously,

"PLANTS is at war the ZAFT and the ORB union as well!"

"What?! Are you serious?!" Kira shouted with a great shock."

"Yes sir…" the private confirmed as he looked at Kira… "…Kira… Yamato" he said with his eyes were amazed to see the ultimate coordinator,

"We must go to ORB right now!" Athrun budged in,

"Are you crazy?!" Stellar said openly,

"No! But if we stay here, a fleet of PLANTS' finest army will be here." Athrun assured,

"We can't let ourselves be seen!"

"But ORB can help us! Not only is it the closest land from our point, it is also the ONLY chance we've got!" Athrun abruptly said,

Tension built up and no doubt that it wasn't going well. Even if it was going all well, chances are that they'll all be having a problem regarding PLANTS. Athrun can't blame them rescuing them, besides; he couldn't stand PLANTS anymore… at least, after what the residence said to him. It seriously attacked his heart out and provoked him with the deepest pits of his anger left out.

"Enough!" Kira shouted, as he barged in the middle of the conversation, literally.

"Can't we just agree with one thing here?!"

"What do you mean Kira?" Athrun asked,

"We need help over here and ORB's out best choice…" Kira replied,

"I told you, we can't-"

"I KNOW!" Kira said with a raised voice that had all eyes on him,

"Can't you get it?! We need help and ORB's our only chance!"

Stellar was stopped from Athrun's words, whether she didn't know what to say or she got to her senses to see Athrun's insight. But Stellar's eyes were saying something else, something deemed over with her deepest thoughts, yet it wasn't that clear for Athrun to say either… which he thought that it was somewhat not like Stellar.

"Can't you all see it?' Athrun said,

"We're far away from ORB, but it's our best bet here." He said clearly,

"…and it's better than fighting an entire army all alone here." He added,

Stellar snatched a handgun that Dearka was hiding by the side of his belt and Stellar pointed it straight at Athrun with her eyes all red and teary, breathing deeply with anger. Mu La Flaga, Yzak, Dearka and Shinn as well held Stellar back taking the gun away from her, as Shinn was persuading Stellar to stop the nonsense. Athrun stood at the very spot he was, watching them all struggling to calm Stellar down, Kira also watched them, but he was worried that something might and could happen awful. He glanced at Athrun; he was puzzled to see Athrun so calm. "How the hell can he be that calm at a time like this?" he said in his thoughts as he ignored Stellar shouting foul words at Athrun, he didn't care much about it, Stellar was likely to be intimidated, and it didn't bother Athrun much either, he well knew that Stellar's always easily intimidated.

"STELLAR! STOP THIS RIGHT NOW!" Shinn shouted as he placed both his hand on Stellar's shoulders,

"ATHRUN'S RIGHT AND WE HAVE NO CHOICE EITHER! YOU UNDERSTAND THAT SITUATION ALL TOO WELL, AND I'M SURE THAT THE CAPTAIN WOULD AGREE WITH ATHRUN!"

Suddenly, Stellar stopped from her struggle and tears were starting to fall down from her teary eyes. Kira noticed it first and he had a bad feeling about this… he turned around and by his shock; he saw something glowing from afar. He saw it beginning to be bigger and bigger, nobody noticed it and he keep staring at it. As it grew even bigger, he quickly realized that it was actually a cruise missile heading towards them.

"Everyone, we've got a cruise missile heading towards us at 3 o' clock!" he shouted with all his voice.

"GET INSIDE!" he shouted,

Everyone looked at it and as soon as they saw it coming, they all hurried in, Mu La Flaga, ran straight inside without saying anything. Yzak and Dearka ran straight to the hanger, leaving Stellar to Shinn, without wasting any time, Kira and Athrun lend Shinn a hand with Stellar, carrying her inside as fast as they could and closed the door with the safety lock on. Shinn looked at Kira,

"You should go to the hanger…" Shinn said, "They're waiting for you…"

"What..? Who's waiting for us?" Kira asked,

"You'll see…" Shinn replied, "I can't help you guys… Stellar here…"

"Okay… we'll go there ASAP."

"Roger…"

Following what Shinn said, both of them ran to the hanger, catching Yzak and Dearka getting in their Gundams, the Dual and the Buster, respectively.

"Yzak!" Kira yelled out at the top of your voice, trying to catch his attention…

"Good, you're here! Get in your mobile suits and give us a hand with those bastards that fired that cruise missile!" Yzak said,

"Our Gundams?! Are you serious?!"

"YEAH!"

Before Kira could ask another question, Yzak closed his hatch and mobilized the Dual just after Dearka did. Both the Dual and Buster positioned themselves on the launch pad and of course, Kira and Athrun stepped aside from the launch zone as the personnel and mechanics also did so.

"Athrun… should we go and help them?" Kira whispered as the Dual was launching…

"I don't know… should we?"

"I know that we said that we won't use any Gundam for fighting, but… in this situation…"

"…they need our help…" Athrun finished the sentence,

"Exactly…"

"… so let's do it." Kira said as the Buster just launched itself to the air…

After that, both of them looked around the hanger and they both saw the two Gundams that they thought that they will never use for fighting ever again, the ZGMF-X19S Infinite Justice and the ZGMF-X20A Strike Freedom. Kira's heart beat faster than normal; he felt a shiver all around his hands and his thoughts were numbed from his own actions. The feeling was immense and he was sure that Athrun was just feeling the same, if not, then at least something like it then. He stared at the two Gundams that they both for a few moments with silence all around them. Even the people there were silent… watching them. As they knew that it's an honour to fight with them.

"Athrun… let's get it on…" Kira said as he took a step forward and continued to walk towards his Gundam…

At that moment, the siren went off noisily and everyone instantly went to their positions and they perfectly knew that Mu La Flaga reached the bridge and warned everyone. They felt the ship started to move swiftly, it seems that Mu wanted to evade the cruise missile rather than making a loud noise firing some bullets at it. Kira and Athrun operated the Gundam watching the screen showing the term Gundam, just after that, they were now ready to move. Kira move the Strike Freedom to the launched pad, as the sign went to a countdown, he clear stated, "Kira Yamato; Strike Freedom…" when the countdown reached zero, he shouted… "LAUNCH!" and his Gundam was launched out in the air, joining the Dual and Buster followed by Athrun.

Kira knew too well that there will be a fight here… and it'll happen soon. He just wished that he won't shed some blood, but it seems impossible... their opponents won't give any mercy, not after what they did to PLANTS. But he still had his doubts though; he just had that thought inside him, are they up against PLANTS now?

The Immortal made a sharp turn, evading the cruise missile with a few inches left before a direct hit. Kira saw it, and it was a lucky one too… they won't be able to get one of those again too. If it did, then luck was more than in their side. Just after the Immortal successfully evaded the missile, Kira's monitor opened up with Mu La Flaga on it…

"Everyone… listen up, I won't be saying this again…" Mu said on the monitor,

"In case you don't know what just happened, we were targeted by a cruise missile by an unknown ship and class. Your mission here is simple… recon the place on high alert. It's an easy mission, so relax… but don't get too comfortable! Now, move out!"

"Roger…" Kira confirmed as he heard other did form the speaker.

Kira looked around at first, but all he could see was the clear sky and the blue sea. The best lead they had was the direction that the missile was fired upon. "Command, give me the coordinates that the missile was captured." Kira requested…

"Geez… Stop with the formalities Kira! I'll give it to you anyway." A woman said from the speaker,

"What..? Miriallia Haw?!"

"Oh, stop the introductions Kira, you know me very well already!"

"It's just shocking to know that you're in this too Mir…"

"Yea, yea… I'm sending you the coordinates now Kira… hold on."

"Okay… I'll continue my recon here…"

The Strike Freedom flew gracefully above the azure coloured sea. Nonetheless, it was well keep and maintained during the absence of Kira and Athrun from their Gundams. Still, that didn't mean much right now… the important thing right now is to return to ORB as soon as possible… at least, that's what he had in mind.

* * *

**After thirty minutes…**

"Yzak… anything in your end?" Kira asked,

"Negative… I guess I'll head back…"

"Dearka… what about you there?"

"Zero… I'll coming back…""Athrun…"

"Nothing here… I'm going back too…"

"Affirmative…" Kira confirmed… "Fall back…"

All of them headed back to the Immortal, since they didn't find anything… they appointed the place to be clear… so did they thought though? Kira saw the Dual returning, the Buster on the other side, and the Infinite Justice on the other…

"WARNING ANOTHER CRUISE MISSILE CONFRIMED HEADING TOWARDS US!" Mir alerted everyone…

"Heading towards the Immortal at 2 o' clock!" she added,

"Wait… another one, at the ship's six!"

"…and another heading straight at 12!"

"There are four cruise missiles and we'll take them all out!" Kira said,

"Mir, prepare the available Skygrasper and ready it for launch… we'll need backup here soon…"

"Yzak, head for the 12, Dearka, the 6, Athrun, you head for the 2. Move out…

"Roger!" all of them said together,

As for Kira, he went for the remaining missile which he knew that it was in the same coordinates as the first missile did.

"Attention all mobile suits, enemy mobile suits and mobile armor confirmed moving head on!" Mir said,

"So they're all starting the first strike eh?" Dearka said ironically,

"Yeah… that was unsuspecting…" Yzak second the motion,

"…even so, don't let your guard down here… we'll be up against a lot of people here…" Kira warned,

"Yzak, head's up! Zaku's are approaching from above!" Athrun shouted,

The Dual sped up to it's maximum thrust with its saber out on the Dual's hand... a Zaku stopped at midair, while two others went straight at the Dual. Athrun knew Yzak all too well, he can't be defeated by some mass produced metal sheets… nor can he be defeated by a dozen of them either, so he didn't worry much and left the Dual to deal with those Zakus. As for Dearka, he fired first with the Buster's large barrelled cannon, it didn't hit a single enemy, but it did disorient their formation. Nonetheless, the blast was more than powerful than ever expected. Might it had been customized by Dearka himself for the maximum use of the Buster's main weapon, or maybe something else, either way, it was more effective than before and Kira knew that all too well, since he fought Dearka way back before with the Strike. As for Athrun, he was fairly doing well by rushing straight at the mobile suits and mobile armor that was charging at them. Destroying a Zaku or a Skygrasper quite easy one after another, unlike the Justice, the Infinite Justice was way more powerful and lasting that made it even deadlier at the wrong hands.

Kira was all prepared from taking on all their enemies, but even if he is well prepared, anything can happen and he won't take any chances. Kira few up high as he notice the Dual with a fierce battle against a number of Zakus, the Buster firing from a distance and Athrun easily destroying a mobile suit one after another. Upon reaching at ten thousand feet, he said in his thoughts, "This is gonna be rough battle with a lot of surprises… what's worse..? It's over the sea…" then he made a sharp left turn and diving down at a very high speed. The clouds in his screen cleared up as he continued to dive down and Mir went in the transmission.

"Kira, what do you think you're doing?!" she barked up vociferously,

"I know what I'm doing Mir!"

"Are you crazy?!"

Just after Mir said that sentence, Kira spun the Gundam releasing the bright saber sword on the Gundam's hand and still continuing the spinning dive. At three thousand feet, Kira spread the Strike Freedom's wing like cannon at the back of the Gundam and slowed the dive down and forcefully swung the saber in front of him vertically. The shocking part was that he hit a Zaku that was charging straight towards the Immortal. In a split of a second, Kira burst his thrusters at max and propelled straight at another Zaku, kicking it straight at the head that caused it to destroy it entirely. The First Zaku exploded after Kira jumped to the other Zakus left, with large debris hitting to the Headless Zaku, resulting it to explode from the damage.

"Everyone, more Zakus are inbound from the east!" Mir informed them all,

"Roger…" Kira said,

"…now Mir, launch the Skygrasper!" he commanded,

"Okay… Skygrasper 13-56A… positive on the launch… you may leave at once…"

From afar, Kira saw a Skygrasper flew out from the launch pad to the open skies, flying as fast as it could to assist the Buster. Kira didn't pay much attention and continued to devastate the Zakus in front of him.

"Guys, more Zakus are appearing in radar… we're outnumbered here!" Mir said,

"More?!" Athrun shouted with a shock,

"Call Shinn and Stellar, we need them here and now!" he demanded,

"Not to worry Athrun…" he heard Shinn over the speaker,

"Shinn Asuka; Impulse… launch!"

"Stellar Loussier; Gaia… launch!"

Athrun catch a glimpse of the Immortal with two Gundams flying fast over the ship and at the same time, the Impulse and Gaia just got in the air.

"Attention, Impulse and Gaia…" Athrun transmitted,

"…two fast mobile suits just flew pass by the Immortal fast… be on alert…"

"Roger, Athrun…" Shinn replied,

"Copy that…" Stellar said,

The cruise missiles were now getting nearer and nearer from the Immortal, it wasn't good though, all of them are busy with the mobile suits and couldn't take their eyes of their enemies both from behind and in front of them… that made an opening for all the missiles straight at the ship…

"Anyone, did you successfully destroy any cruise missile?" Kira asked

"Negative…" Dearka said, "…I've got my hands full dealing with these Zakus already!"

"…that's a no here… these Zakus are really getting in my nerves…"

"Flying to destroy the nearest one Kira, I've got one in my trail…" Athrun said,

"We don't have time here… we won't be able to destroy it in time here…" Shinn reasoned out…

"Roger… I'll be destroying those missiles… Impulse, fly over here… Gaia, assist the Dual now!" Kira bossed around with great leadership…

The fight caught up over the sea with such intensity in just a short span of time. Even if they're outnumbered by their unknown foe, all of them were now in a pinch… the only safe thing was the Immortal still up and running without any buggies flying over it… Kira thought of it too, he was sure that they were not in a good position right now, the only advantage they had was advanced Gundams, superior training and of course, their experience over the battles they all had. Now, everything rest behind Kira's piloting skills as he wound need to destroy the other missiles that are obviously a potential danger for the Immortal, however, it's easier said than done.

"Its not gonna be easy…" Kira said in his thoughts as he remembered Lacus…

"Kira… you're the only one that can intercept those missiles on time…" Athrun said clearly,

"…we can't afford a mistake here… you know that…" he added…

"Roger… everyone… back me up… I need everyone backing me up!"

"…and the Immortal will be prepared…" Mu said over the speaker,

"…don't worry guys, we're going to support you all, so stay close with the ship…"

The plan was a simple one… even if Kira didn't brief it, but everyone understood the entire plan precisely as if they made that plan themselves. Somehow, the plan would work… chances were uncertain, but the only certain thing is that all the mobile suits will be attacking them hard as the mobile armors are coming already. Not that it's making everything easier… they still don't know their enemy and whoever they are… they're good with tactics, but the catch is that they don't have any well trained pilot around; a clear advantage for Kira and the others.

Kira pulled the lever and the thrusters behind the Strike Freedom roared with some blue flame bursting out below. The Strike Freedom flew even faster and I was about fifty meters far before the missile would pass him… so, with some time to spare, Kira open his saber and threw it with the saber spinning wildly towards the missile. Kira pulled down and the Strike went down to retrieve his saber and turned around and continued to journey to destroy the next missile nearest to him. Athrun did finish the missile off and went straight to the Immortal, destroying a few Zakus in the way. The Dual and the Skygrasper raced to aid Kira as the Zakus were chasing them both. The Buster still fired from a range, giving them a great deal of support.

Secretly, Kira knew that their chances were slim… and he has no assurance if he can destroy the last cruise missile as it makes it approach to the Immortal as a death sentence. If Kira's not fast enough… there's a large possibility that the ship will be hit… the missile's not a joke though… it's so fast and it's not the ordinary cruise missile that the military use. He felt a sudden urge and evidently, his Seed went off and his piloting skills went of a rush in such a rush. As the ultimate coordinator, he is certainly the best in piloting a Gundam and he should be too… it's their only hope.

Kira automatically customized his Gundam to maximize its thrust for more speed; amazingly, it only took him a few seconds to adjust everything and sped faster than any of them did. He took the Gundam's weapon, a laser rifle. He fired two shots at the oncoming cruise missile at a distance, but it missed since the target was small from afar. Kira gave another shot, but it hit a Zaku that was behind the missile at around fifty meters or so.

"Kira… hurry up… three hundred meters before impact…" Mir informed him…

"…be careful… I'm detecting a lot of mobile armor and mobile suits heading straight at you… from the front and from the rear."

"Kira..!" Athrun yelled,

"…just fire that missile before it gets worse!"

"I'm trying Athrun, I'm TRYING!"

Back in the Immortal, everyone's bracing themselves, hoping that Kira would hit that missile, although moving to evade the missile; they don't have a fix coordinate for hem to just simple move away from the path. Making matters even worse, bullets won't affect that special cruise missile; unlike ordinary ones… they can easily destroy those kinds of missiles with bullets. Mu knows that all too well, but as a precaution, he prepared all turrets to be online just in case if any other unwanted events would happen. Although, it won't matter much for Athrun though, even if they were all outnumbered and everything, he still kept his cool and maintained a clear insight of things… others could've panicked and that's the least that any of them wanted to happen.

Kira targeted the missile with a hundred and fifty meters left. He precisely aimed it and set his nervousness out and tried to make it as a perfect shot.

"Kira, just pull the damn trigger already!" Athrun bellowed

"I can't, it'll miss if I did! The target's still far away…" Kira answered…

"Just hit it before it hits the ship!"

"I told you it's still far away!"

"Kira, just-"

"Just shut up Athrun and let me target that missile!" Kira shouted before Athrun could finish,

Steadying the Kira at a point, Kira focused entirely at the missile. He's not trained to be a sniper, but he can use a gun well with great accuracy. Keeping the aim straight, Kira cleared his throat and breathe in and out slowly but deeply.

"Kira… ninety more meters left!" Mir said as she was panicking a bit…

"Kira, fire it now!" Athrun shouted,

"…hold on…" Kira said, as he still concentrated on the target…

The aim was carefully made just like a sniper would do… somehow, even if he didn't have any proper training for sniping, he knows what to do by instinct just because he's a coordinator… the ultimate coordinator. He blinked his eyes and fired… a beam fired out from the gun very fast and in just a second, the beam hit the missile with twenty more meters left before impact. After it was hit, it immediately exploded with such a force that Mu and the others in the ship felt a strong shockwave.

Kira turned around and swiftly destroying more Zakus... the Dual caught up with the Strike Freedom and backing up the Strike Freedom while the Buster continued to support them with its burst fired laser cannon. Athrun also rallied up with Kira and the others, giving them a hand.

"Skygrasper 13-56A… requesting to return to the Immortal…" the pilot of the Skygrasper transmitted,

"…I see smoke at the back… and declaring an emergency landing…"

"Copy that…" Mir answered,

"Skygrasper 13-56A… you may now proceed to the ship for an emergency landing…"

The battle went on for an hour with Zakus still coming in strong from different directions. The Gaia and the Impulse continued to protect the Immortal by destroying all incoming Zakus and other mobile armor approaching it.

"Kira… radar shows three fast moving mobile suits from the south." Mir said,

"Any info about it..?" Kira asked,

"Negative… all data about it is unknown…"

"Roger…"

Kira knew instantly that it was trouble… those were not ordinary Zakus this time… they could be something way more advanced and even more powerful. However… the timing is impeccably right, there are three of those mobile suits and there are also three competitors for Kira's side as well; the Strike Freedom, the Infinite Justice and the Impulse… the three most powerful Gundams on air and with their pilots capable of maximize the efficiency of each Gundam.

"Athrun… Shinn… let's intercept those Gundams there…" Kira said,

"…the rest will stay here and defend the Immortal…"

"Okay… its show time…" Shinn said,

"…it's been awhile since we had a serious duel..." Athrun assumed…

Athrun was getting tense as they met the three mobile suits… he was worried if he could return to Cagalli ever again after this battle, as he knew that each battle can mean his last. Surely Kira and Shinn's aware of it too, but in any case, they were fighting anyway… not for the pleasure and the fame that they have today, but for their future… for the people that they love. Certainly, they won't just leave it be and let everything be in its way even if it's all wrong. Athrun then gave a deep sigh… knowing that the battle had just begun.


	5. Chapter 5: Lips of an Angel

**Chapter 5:**** Lips of an Angel…**

"Lacus, we have to help them!" Cagalli said as she tries to persuade Lacus,

"I know, but how are we going to help them?"

"Remember, I'm the princess of ORB… I can order a full scale assault anytime I want…"

"…but that's not right…""Is it wrong to save the guy you love?!"

"Is it right to let lives be at stake just to save the guy you love?!"

Cagalli fell silent… she can't say a thing to respond to what Lacus said. She felt shame, anger, frustration, worries, sadness and even guilt at the same time. She should've known better, as the representative and a highlight for ORB, she should be the first role model for everyone else… instead, her feelings clouded her judgment like any commoner, at the same time, she's worried about Athrun and Kira more than she ever was before… resulting to a lot of hidden anger and flowing frustration that was as irritating as any complaint from the residence.

"…look, Kira's out there and he might be killed!" Cagalli said desperately as she placed her hands on Lacus' shoulders,

"You're just saying that because you're worried about Athrun…"

"…don't you care about Kira?!"

"Oh… of course I am worried about Kira Cagalli, Athrun too!"

"Then why don't we do something?!"

"…there's nothing we can do…" Lacus said calmly,

"There is…" Cagalli said faintly,

"…we'll send out our troops there… the Archangel is still in the hanger under the military…"

"We can't risk thousands of lives just for them Cagalli, as the princess of ORB, you should know that better than anyone else!"

After what Lacus said, Cagalli marched upstairs with loud stomps and went inside her room with a loud bang of the door. She was furious about it, but helpless to do anything about it… it was Lacus that she was talking with, she can't disobey her… she was more than just a sister to her… Lacus' the girl which she's close with than anyone else. She slowly walked towards her bed, took a seat at the side, and freely let her entire body fall on the large soft feather pillow… thinking about Athrun and Kira. She grabbed another pillow, it was slightly smaller than the feathered pillow, but she covered her face with the pillow as she cried her problems to sleep.

* * *

"She's just worried about Athrun…" Lacus said in her thoughts, sitting on the comfy couch…

"… I don't want my husband dead..!" she added,

Lacus sighed deeply and opened up the television where as she changed the channel to the news again… hoping that there would be any good news regarding PLANTS. But all the news should was a huge whale drifting afloat the shores of ORB early this morning where in authorities believe that the whale died because of a large wound was clearly visible that scrapped the side of the whale entirely, but in reality, nobody knows for sure… yet.

"Oh my… who would such a thing..?" Lacus said faintly as she was shocked to see the dead whale on television

Lacus kept on watching the news for ten minutes or so and suddenly a news flash came in and even the news caster was shock upon receiving the paper from a personnel… he went on…

"News flash… a fierce battle is currently taking place just beyond our shores… it is said that the Earth Alliance is behind this and is now apprehending the suspicious ship that might be connected with the attack at PLANTS. Reports also have confirmed that the ship that attacked at PLANTS is not a military class ship nor has it any emblem to identify the ship. Strangely, some of the naval force of the Earth Alliance claimed that the Strike Freedom and the Infinite Justice is with the suspected ship…"

The news caster stopped and took a deep breathe…

"This my friends… is not going to be easy for our heroes… even if they are not with the ship…" he ended…

Suddenly, the phone rang and Lacus stood up quickly and answered the phone…

"Good morning… Yamato residence…" Lacus said cheerfully, even if her heart's burdened with pain…

"Lacus, this is Meyrin… you heard the news?!"

"…oh Meyrin… yes… I've heard ever bit of it… although it was unsuspecting though…"

"Exactly…" Meyrin replied…

"Don't you think we should help them?" she added,

"…I wish I could…" the songstress stopped, "…but there's nothing we can do about it."

"NO!" Meyrin shouted,

"We can help them!"

"How's that possible?!"

"…that's where Cagalli's power as princess gets in…" she said mischievously…

Lacus recalled, Meyrin's thinking of the same thing as Cagalli was. She knows that Kira and the others seriously needs help… now her chance to lend his husband a hand, but she's powerless to do so just because of her clouded conscience. Lacus was now getting into a really serious decision… if she'll help Kira and the others… she knows to well that trouble will be on the way, on the other hand… if she won't help her husband… it's likely that she'll lose her husband for good… and it'll take more than just a miracle to happen.

"Meyrin… I...I'll accept that offer…" Lacus said with a doubt,

"Yes! Now, let's talk to Cagalli… I'll be there in fifteen minutes." And she hanged up the phone.

Lacus gave it a thought after she closed the phone… she stood beside the wall phone blindly and thought deeply. Knowing what she was into, it's inevitable that she can really change it now… to add it up, how can she change it at this situation? She sat down at the relaxing couch and watched the news again. This time, the news was about the Earth Alliance's strike against the suspected ship near ORB.

"Reports have finally confirmed that the Strike Freedom is working side by side with the Infinite Justice on defending the suspected ship that's called the Immortal. Along with the Immortal are the Dual and the Buster… with two more unidentified mobile suits." The beautiful news caster reported,

"…adding it up, it is said that a total of a seventy six Zakus have been destroyed during the assault and none of the accomplice mobile suits have been even damaged. Truly, those pilots have such admiring skills, but only at the wrong way…" the news caster added,

"Piloting the Strike Freedom is the one and only Kira Yamato and the Infinite Justice is piloted by former FAITH member, Athrun Zala." the news caster partner said,

Lacus couldn't believe it though… after what Kira and Athrun promised them… the two best friends are again back with the destruction… not responsible for the deaths of few, but rather thousands of deaths just because of an escalation of the problem that resulted to be an even worse war. In this case, their problem is the Earth Alliance. Although Kira, Athrun and the rest of the gang are all far more superior to the naturals, the naturals are undeniably greater by numbers; they are likely to be outnumbered… unfortunately, those numbers are not much counted due to lack of piloting skills of the Earth Alliance, though it packs quite a punch since Kira and the others are likely to be tired from all the pressure and when that happens, they can find an opening and strike at that precise moment. Lacus knows too well that Kira won't last that long even if he is the ultimate coordinator… she needs to do something… and fast.

The songstress was out of choice… her heart won over the best of her. She can't leave her husband being outnumbered by hundreds of Earth Alliance forces… at least not without a fight. The songstress hurried upstairs, heading straight towards Cagalli's room. She knocked the door... she knocked it again… and one more time. Cagalli shouted… "It's open!" from the inside and Lacus slowly opened the door.

"Yeah?" Cagalli asked Lacus as she was in her bed, hugging a large pillow.

"Get everything ready… we're going to save them..." the songstress said seriously,

"Really?!" as the blonde saw her sister in law with a serious look…

"Yes, I am thoroughly prepared… and I'll save my husband from those freaks!"

"I knew that you cared for Kira!" Cagalli shouted,

Cagalli jumped from her bed, and ran towards Lacus and hugged her sincerely…

"Now… Cagalli, I want you to call the ORB officials and to order the best men and woman for the Archangel… we don't have any other choice but to use Ramius as the Captain… wherever she is…"

"What..? Do you mean… you'll…" and lacus interfered,

"Yes Cagalli… we're going there… and the Angel's our ride…"

* * *

"Enemies inbound… four more kilometers until we meet our… guest…" Shinn said over the speaker,

"I can see them from here…" Athrun opened up,

"…a black one, a red one, and a blue one…"

"Roger… I can see them from here…" Kira affirmed,

"…seriously guys, do you think that they can actually give us a hard time..?"

"Yes… I'm more than sure Shinn…"

"What makes you think that..?"

"I can feel something… not right about the pilots…""You've got a lot to learn kid…" Athrun said with a chuckle…

"I'm not a kid…"

"ENOUGH WITH THAT CHIT-CHAT, WE'RE IN A MIDDLE OF A BATTLE FOR GOD'S SAKE!" Mir shouted, cutting their conversation…

"Alright, alright… take it easy Mir, or else you'll blow my speakers out." Shinn said,

"You better keep it down or else that speaker will be broken Shinn Asuka!"

"What's her problem..?" Shinn said in his thoughts…

Kira didn't pay much attention to the argument that Shinn and Mir were going on… instead, he was constantly watching over the radar, checking their distance. As it seems though, they were all heading straight at each other with such a speed. He checked the distance and there were two more kilometers…

"Guys… get ready…" Kira said,

"… Two more kilometers…" he added…

"Roger…" both Athrun and Shinn said,

The Strike Freedom released its own saber with the bright glow that was blinding as the sun… Kira then positioned the Strike Freedom for it to move at its greatest speed. Shinn got his huge sword with the silhouette pack ready, just waiting for his orders for launch. Athrun prepared the Infinite Justice's range weapons for support, unlike Kira and Shinn; he has another thing in mind just in case if it'll be a gun fight instead of a melee fight.

"Hey… don't get yourself killed out there Kira… or else I'll be losing my best man... and a brother in law." Athrun opened up,

"Don't worry… I won't Athrun… just be sure you're still breathing… or else there won't be a wedding…"

"What the hell are you two talking about..?" Shinn asked,

"Isn't that obvious enough for you Shinn?" Mir said,

"…Athrun's marrying her girlfriend…"

"What?! Are you serious Athrun, are you marrying Cagalli?!" Shinn shouted with a lot of grasps at the speaker…

"Yes… but what's with the reaction you guys?"

"Are you serious Athrun?!" Yzak shouted,

Dearka said mischievously,

"…I guess you owe me Yzak… bet's over." He added with a laugh,

"Damn…" Yzak said, and nothing else…

"Athrun… Shinn… One more kilometer 'til impact!" Kira shouted,

"…get ready, they're preparing their weapons!"

"They're shooting at us, evasive maneuvers… MOVE!" Athrun shouted,

* * *

"So..? How did it go..?" Lacus asked Cagalli just after Cagalli closed the phone,

"Everything's arranged… we just need Ramius and the rest of the crew…" Cagalli replied…

"…but that's like impossible… we don't even know where Ramius is these days,"

"Exactly…" Cagalli stopped,

"…so how are we going to do it..?"

"I… don't know…"

Without giving them time to think ahead, door bell rang out twice and Lacus was sure that it was Meyrin… so, the songstress got up and she went downstairs, leaving Cagalli in her room to open the front door. Half way done from the stairs, the door bell rang again…

"Coming…" the songstress shouted out with a tune,

She opened the door, and shocked to see that Meyrin brought in her sister, Lunamaria Hawke and the person that they were looking… former captain of the Archangel… Murrue Ramius.

"Hi Lacus!" Meyrin happily greeted with a hug…

"…my sister wanted to help out… and…"

"…it's ok… we really needed your help…"

"I found Murrue…"

"Hello… Lacus… nice to see you again." She said with a smile… but nothing more…

Murrue was still the usual serious woman where she's best at tactics and strategies regarding warfare, of course, she was the captain of the Archangel when she was in her lieutenant rank. Now, her services are again needed, since she's the only one that knows the ins and outs of the Archangel. She was wearing a camouflage cap that fits her all too well, a camouflage uniform with a captain seal on both sides of the uniform, a pair of short gloves only covering her hands and not her fingers, and a long camouflage pants with black boots to finish of her uniform.

"…look at you… it's as if you're ready to go to war…" Lacus said giving a fair look at Murrue's attire…

"It's a long story Lacus… but that's not what we're here for, is it?"

"Of course not… come on in and let's settle everything…"

The got in and took a seat on the cozy sofa, Lacus didn't waste any time, she went to the kitchen straight away, leaving Meyrin, Luna and Murrue in the living room, but the timing was inevitably great, they saw Cagalli going down…

"Cagalli, it's nice to see you!" Meyrin said happily, waving her hand,

"Oh, hello!" Cagalli said as she goes down the stairs with excitement

"…I didn't expect you guys to be here…"

"Well, we're going to save our boys… aren't we..?"

"What..?" Cagalli said, pretending to know nothing about it,

"Drop the act Cagalli," Murrue said,

"… we all know that you were poor at acting… besides, we all know about it already…"

"Oh… ok then, what's our plan here..?" Cagalli asked,

"…I thought you had a plan..?" Meyrin said with a doubt,

"… That's what you thought…"

"Oh well…" Meyrin said with a sigh,

Lacus came back with ice tea for everyone… she noticed that they were talking about something with Cagalli, but nonetheless, it was the least of their problems now, what they needed now is a crew… a complete crew for the Archangel. Funny, Murrue's not that worried about it, is it just because of her training, by never showing herself from being worried or anything that will show any weakness? Maybe, she really doesn't care about..? Who knows..? One thing for sure is that she's just so calm… unlike the rest of them. Nonetheless, Lacus is determined to do this and Cagalli's in it too.

Lacus said straightly,

"…I can be in the communications… and Luna is bound to be in a mobile suit…" Meyrin said,

"I'll be in a mobile suit as well… I've prepared the Strike Rouge and the Akatsuki… my people are preparing it as we speak." Cagalli said,

"That's settled… but we still need more crew…" Luna said,

"…we can get some from ORB's military facility… but we need someone we know and that we trust."

"Andrew Waltfeld…" Lacus said out of the blue,

"…he's the one that I can trust… I can call him now…" she added,

"Splendid, call him then Lacus…" Murrue said, and Lacus was off…

"What about Sai..? He was one of the original crew members of the Archangel. Arnold Neumann too, he's also the original crew that piloted the angel…" Cagalli recommended,

"Of course… I heard that they're here in ORB for a vacation… Romero Pal is also here… he was in charged of fire control and the CIC…" Murrue recalled,

"…I should call them…" she added, leaving Cagalli, Meyrin and Luna…

"…but what about our mechanic..?" Luna asked,

"…we've got the chief engineer in our side… after the war, I offered him to work under ORB, fixing and maintaining the mobile suits and mobile armors for ORB's military. He obviously accepted it and I'll call him…" Cagalli also left, leaving Meyrin and Luna…

Everything's prepared Lacus felt her heart skipped a beat, if not; she was just getting so nervous then. They'll all meet up at ORB's military facility, where the archangel is held up secretly. She knew that Kira needed their help and there's no time to lose... she packed her things, shocked to see that everyone was just waiting for her. They all went out from the front door, Meyrin, Luna and Murrue got into their car, a very beautiful blue sports car marked with Porsche… Lacus on the other hand opened the garage and when she opened it, Meyrin was amazed to see that she owned five beautiful sports cars. A red shining Ferrari, another Ferrari, except that the paint job was different and it was fairly similar to the Ferrari Spider, for some reason maybe it's based from the Spider itself. A black chromed Ford muscle car, that looked more than just muscles… and two Porsche, both had different color schemes and both of them were different from designs to the model of the car, one of them pink and the other had two color schemes, blue and white… obviously resembling Kira's mobile suit color.

"Lacus, why didn't you tell me that you had a lot of cool cars?" Meyrin shouted over the car's window,

"You never asked…" Lacus answered with a chuckle…

Lacus picked the pink Porsche and drove it out the garage next to the blue Porsche of Meyrin's. Cagalli automatically opened the trunk and placed her luggage in, closed it and got in the car in the front seat as fast as she could…

"I never knew that Kira was obsessed with sport cars…" Cagalli said checking out the bits and parts of the Porsche…

"… Yeah… I didn't either." Lacus said as she gave a good throttle…

"Alright… let's get going… we'll all meet at the military facility and we'll fly with the angel…

"I… no, we're all the lips on an Angel… the Archangel…"


	6. Chapter 6: Outnumbered

**Chapter 6: Outnumbered**

There were three of them… Kira had a strong feeling that they were facing skilled pilots that matched their capabilities. Of course, had no certainty or whatsoever if they were really facing able pilots, but nonetheless, Kira judged them to be so; He must not underestimate his enemies. The Black mobile suit looked very fierce with huge particle cannons on each hand with blades on the side of the mobile suit's arms that length up to its shoulders, clearly making the Gundam a long ranged artillery unit. The red mobile suit is obviously built for close range as it carried a huge anti-ship class sword that can slice up a Nazca-class ship with ease, aside from the incredibly huge sword, a red phase shift shield is attached on the right arm of the mobile suit… no other detail could be possibly applied except that it's fast and agile since it is built for close ranged combat. The last one is quite intriguing; it's a blue Gundam that actually looks like the Destiny with a different color scheme. Like most Gundams, it's carrying a beam rifle that proves to be more than just useful for Kira during his close encounters. The amazing thing about that Gundam is that it carried a lot of weapons. A pair of hidden daggers on the waist of the mobile suit, a beam saber, a beam pistol. The Gundam's carrying a beam rifle on the left, and another one on the right. Like the strike, it's carrying a backpack just like the aile pack, but the main difference is the content of the pack, hiding most of its rifle inside, armed and ready. Obviously, the blue Gundam is the sharpshooter among the three.

"Athrun… Shinn… One more kilometer 'til impact!" Kira shouted,

"…get ready, they're preparing their weapons!"

"They're shooting at us, evasive maneuvers… MOVE!" Athrun shouted,

A stream of lasers passed by Kira, Shinn spun around, causing the beams to reflect upon hitting him, Athrun on the other hand blocked of the lasers with his shield, he slowed down and fired back, while Shinn kept on moving forward with some blocking and evasive maneuvers. Kira on the other hand kept his speed and moved on while evading every single fire. Kira didn't wait for it though; he pushed himself head on and crashed with the blue Gundam, resulting to the clash of hard metal that sounded more eerie than the screech of a annoying monkey screaming mindlessly. Both of them were hitting each other just as if they were fighting like a pair of Samurai Spiders, tangling each other and hitting and blocking each other without any care of what's down with their showdown.

Athrun was relieved that the constant fire from their enemy beams stopped, at least temporarily. Now he could rush on one of the two charging enemy, but upon range, Athrun open fire and targeted the black Gundam with his beam rifle. It was a clear shot, he got him with a lock, and then again, it didn't go on that well. The beam just bounced off the Gundam upon reaching its alloyed armor… and in an instant, Athrun knew that they were dealing with Trans-Shift Armor or TS armor and not the usual Phase Shift Armor or PS armor where beams would penetrate it. TS armors can easily block beams without any problem at all. The problem with TS armors is just simple, it requires more energy and as a result it needs a bigger power generator which depletes easily not like the PS armor which needed less energy and is way lighter than the TS counterparts but is its armor can't block beams.

Athrun changed targets and fired at the red Gundam, although his target just blocked the beams with the huge sword he's carrying. It was a great but futile attempt by Athrun but his true intention was actually to buy Shinn some time to catch the black Gundam off guard, as Shinn approaches the red Gundam. Athrun knew that he's close by the black Gundam; he switched weapons almost instantly with his beam saber and thrust it straight at the chest area of the mobile suit. Unsuspectingly, the black mobile suit evaded Athrun's attack and retaliated with a swift tackle with its bladed arm. Athrun predicted it and used the Infinite Justice's thrusters to pull the entire mobile suit backwards in just a flash. Athrun then positioned himself face to face with the black mobile suit with the beam saber out and his thrusters ready to go. The black Gundam charged its particle cannon and waited for Athrun to react… Athrun charged head on with its thrusters at max, he went on so fast, it only took him a blink to reach the black mobile suit, he slashed the charged particle cannon and moved up as fast as he could, a second later, the cannon exploded with the black Gundam receiving all the impact. He looked down as the thick black smoke was clearing a little bit. He was confident that the blast took him out already; the blast was strong enough to destroy a Gundam. Out of the blue, a bright light of beam spew out of from the still-dark smoke and nearly hit Athrun… it was so close, in fact, he felt a force was pushing him away from the path of the huge beam. He was lucky to evade that shot, or maybe it really just didn't hit the Infinite Justice..? Either way, he was lucky and he won't have another chance like that anytime soon.

Shinn rushed in straight away with its own sword in position for any attack straight at front. The red Gundam was surely no Gundam to be messed with during close range- at least that was what Shinn thought. He'll really need all his training with close combats along the way too… either way, he shouldn't underestimate his enemies… not once, not ever. The good thing about the Impulse is that it is somewhat maneuverable than the Freedom and surely it's more flexible too, the bad side about it is that it won't stand a chance against the Freedom in terms of weaponry and power alone, not with the help of the different packs that the Impulse have. Shinn breathes in deeply and when he was in range, he gave a horizontal slash at the red Gundam, but his enemy dropped down and evaded the attack as if he knew that it was coming. The Impulse turned around flexibly and gave another slash, only this time, the red Gundam was flying below the Impulse just after reacting from the first attack. The red Gundam again reacted, this time by placing his large sword in front. That clash caused the two colliding swords to spark out as if both of them were being wielded together…they continued to attack and parry consecutively as if there was a pattern. All of sudden, the Impulse used its thrusters and pulled itself up high and threw two daggers straight at the red Gundam below. The first dagger hit the sword; the second one missed the red Gundam without Shinn noticing it not until it ricocheted at an angle that barely missed the Impulse by a few inches.

"Kira, are you okay there? You're losing altitude…" Mir said in a worried tone,

"Sorry… but I'm kinda busy… here…" Kira answered with his alarm buzzing out loudly,

"Kira, the alarm's on! What's happening..?"

"…I told you… I'm busy!"

"Just answer me Kira!" Mir shouted out in fear.

The Strike Freedom continued its dogfight with the Blue Gundam, as they were tangled together and going down - fast. Kira knew that if he'll use the DRAGOON system, he'll have to take his chances to destroy not only his enemy but himself as well.

"Kira!" Mir screamed over the speaker,

"I'm not gonna die here!" Kira shouted out,

All of the sudden, Kira felt that sudden feeling from deep within his guts and climbing up to his chest His senses broadened more than he could imagine, it seems that it was his seed that triggered out. It's the only reason why he is alive, as a Coordinator. During the seed trigger, Kira's abilities as a pilot are far more advanced than any naturals, being the ultimate Coordinator, he's much powerful than just any everyday Coordinator.

Kira pulled the left lever beside his seat and the Strike Freedom automatically responded and moved its arm and gave an elbow hit to the middle section of his enemy. He then used the DRAGOON system and the attachments behind the Strike Freedom were released and all of those attachments were positioning automatically around Kira's enemy. Kira only has one shot and he knew very well that if he miss, it's either it'll hit him or miss him, but it won't make any much difference if it didn't, he still has the water down below to worry, not to mention that they're both falling down straight and fast. To make things worse, it's a do or die situation.

Without any more time, Kira pulled the trigger and fired right away. A stream of beams passed the Strike Freedom, Kira thought that he was a goner for sure, at a split of a second; he was amazed to see that it actually hit the Blue Gundam and destroyed its left arm along with the huge rifle that it carried. He instantly pulled up the lever found at the lower left part of the cockpit and the Strike Freedom regained its balance and started to float above the fast falling enemy Gundam. The Blue Gundam suddenly rose up high and went straight up for the Strike Freedom, then it got a pistol out from the its hips and started to fire at Kira without any point of stop.

Kira swiftly moved left and right, evading every fire. As the Blue Gundam was getting nearer and nearer, Kira used the DRAGOON system again, a number of mini blasters spread out in front of the Strike Freedom and fired a burst of lasers, crossing from every angle. It continued to do so as the blue Gundam suddenly stopped its thrusters, at the same time; the Strike Freedom fired its rifle and hit the Blue Gundam right in the middle section. Kira then pulled a lever and the thrusters of the Strike Freedom's thrusters roared loudly; moving away from the Blue Gundam. The Blue Gundam then exploded and pieces of debris were flying all over the place.

One of the enemy Gundams are destroyed, obviously Kira and the rest were in an advantage. Kira rushed over with the Infinite Justice and assisted Athrun, leaving Shinn handling his own with melee combats, since he could see that the Impulse was sturdily built for that kind of situation.

"Kira… that thing has TS armor. Beam Rifles won't do the trick here…" Athrun warned Kira…

"Athrun… what happened to one of its cannons?" Kira asked as they were evading all the cannon fires.

"I slashed it off when I got near it," Athrun said,

"…that thing is slow…" he added…

"Well, how about like the old days?" Kira said,

"…you know what to do Athrun."

Athrun started to fire at the black Gundam and Kira went head on at the black Gundam… the black mobile suit fired out missiles out of his arm and it burst out like locus all around over sky. Athrun continued to fire and caught those missiles right on target and exploded, causing nearby missile to blow up as well, on the other hand Kira couldn't approach the black mobile suit directly without his mobile suit to actually be damaged during the explosion, so he scurried back to safety and started to fire with his rifle straight at those spreading missiles instead.

"That was a bad idea." Kira said,

"It backfired… that thing's built for long ranged battles." Athrun answered,

"Yeah… and we can't even get near it with those missiles heading for us."

"…now what..?" Athrun asked Kira distinctively,

They were fighting with everything they've got, fortunately for their opponent, they have skilled pilots. If they keep it up, Kira and the rest would eventually wear down. They need to escape from the battle field or else they'll really be in trouble. As the battle rages on, It seems that they were in a critical situation.

"Kira, the immortal's in danger!" Dearka shouted out,

"…two battle ships at her six"

"You have to fend those off; we're still keeping these Gundam off your tail."

"Roger…" Dearka answered,

"Stellar, Yzak, back Dearka up he's the only one capable of destroying those ships" Shinn said.

The time ticked by from minutes to hours. The Immortal's defenses in full capacity and preventing the enemies fire to penetrate the ship. The Buster stood valiantly at the top most part of the Immortal and fired its huge cannon at the two pursuing ships. The first fire was blocked by the enemy's shield. As it seems, they've prepared for such a situation, the second fire was more effective than the last, it hit the right port side of the ship where all the ships mobile armor were and exploded, forcing the ship to fall back. The Dual and Gaia were in for a fight. There were a battalion of Zaku right infront of them and fending them off from the Immortal and from the Buster as well.

One more ship left to go and the Immortal is still far away from the the ORB boarders. The Strike Freedom and the Infinite Justice is still fighting the still capable Black Gundam while the Impulse is having a hard time with all the close quarter combat. As it seems that they could win the battle, misfortune struck out.

"Attention, everyone, there's an incoming fleet right from our seven!" Mir informed in fear,

"PLANTS forces…" she added up,

"What? Are you kidding me?" Dearka garbled,

"How many?" Kira asked,

"Seven battleships, three cruise ships as support, a battalion of Zaku and five Skygraspers heading at your way Kira."

Athrun knew that they're outnumbered… but given the numbers… he's really sure that they won't be able to withstand such a force. Still, he kept on firing the Black Gundam despite of their disadvantage. He knew that they won't be able to make it out in one piece. He felt a sudden hype inside of him, maybe from fear or maybe from hope, either way, he felt that hype to be good. He used that to trigger his seed and his reflexes greatly improved at once; his rate of fire faster, his precision deadlier and his instincts more accurate. Kira charged straight at the black Gundam avoiding the missiles by evading each and every one of those missiles. The Black Gundam charged its cannon and pointed it at the Strike Freedom. Kira noticed it and max his thrusters out, he charged straight at the black Gundam and halfway there he readied his beam saber. Kira then pulled a lever down and at close range; he slashed the black Gundam into two separate pieces. Kira then maneuvered the Strike Freedom far from the black Gundam as he knew very well that it'll explode at any second, and it did.

"Guys, PLANTS fleet are nearing us!" Mir announced,

"How far are we from ORB?" Athrun asked,

"It'll take us about thirty more minutes to reach ORB's boarders at this pace."

"…damn it. We won't be able to reach ORB on time." Athrun gave a thought,

The Buster, Dual and Gaia are busy shaking off the pursuing ship and a battalion of Zaku. Shinn is still busy with the last remaining Gundam that's been quite pesky than expected. The Strike Freedom headed towards the Immortal to assist the Dual and the Gaia. The Infinite Justice headed towards Shinn's battle.

"Kira… you do know that we're outnumbered here… right?" Athrun privately communicated with Kira,

"Yeah, I know… we won't last long here if this keeps up." Kira said,

"We're really outnumbered here…"


End file.
